The SCA will enjoy its 50th anniversary in 2015, and to celebrate, the A&S50 Challenge was created.
For anyone unfamiliar with the term, A&S stands for Arts and Sciences, and encompasses all the activities in the SCA that are of a creative nature - most notably, making and embellishing all manner of things (embroidery, sewing, weaving, carving, casting, dyeing, working with herbs, soapmaking, music, theater, leatherworking, shoemaking, lacemaking, games, bead making, cooking, illumination, and many, many more), all researched and performed using period techniques and materials to the extent possible, or using reasonable modern substitutions when not.
The A&S50 Challenge, in a nutshell, is to choose 50 A&S projects to do prior to May 1, 2015. There are several different ways to go about it, and I'll let the creators explain it better than I could, on their own website: A&S 50 Challenge.
I've been wanting to be more involved in the SCA anyway, and I thought this was a fine way to dive back into it! Plus, as I mentioned in my first post when I signed up on their Yahoo Group for this Challenge, I tend to be kind of lazy, and need the motivation of committing to something with a definite goal, and committing publicly to boot, to get myself going.
So I signed up! I'm kind of excited. It really will be a 'challenge' for me, as I'm kind of time-poor as it is, combined with the formerly mentioned lack of motivation. But I want to do this, and I'm going to set some goals and make it happen.
I've decided for my challenge to do this: I'm going to pick 15 different A&S skills, and make three different projects for each one (and have 5 left over, artisan's choice). Some of these skills I already know and have done before (like embroidery), though I've never fully completed any project with any of them. The only projects I have ever completed are sewing projects, and I didn't include sewing in my list.
The three projects in each A&S skill category will have three different purposes. One will be a personal item for me. One will be something to help spiff up our group camp at Pennsic, or something I can donate to my local group if it's something that they could use; or must in some other way be used for the benefit of some group (like our combined camping arrangement at Pennsic). The third will be something I can donate to the Kingdom, if appropriate, or something to be used and enjoyed on a larger scale. (that one's getting challenging already, but I'm confident ideas will be manifested when the time comes).
I'm going to post a list of my project plans, as soon as I figure out where to put it so it can be accessed without scrolling through all the posts to find it. It'll be updated as things progress.
Craziness! But I think it's going to be a lot of fun, and I'll learn a lot of new things in the process. And hey, I do have six years to do all this.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Nothing Much
I wish I'd have gotten the rain barrel project farther along ... there's supposed to be thunderstorms today with heavy rain. I'd have liked to have seen what one good rain storm produced at my one downspout. Ah well - baby steps.
Thanks for the information, Rhys - that does sound encouraging. I really don't mind if I need to get larger water storage containers. Like I said, the more, the better as far as I'm concerned, because I want to be able to water extensive areas all summer without running out during the dry spells. I'll find a way to camouflage them so they don't look too hideous sitting around the house.
There are only a couple things I wonder. Getting a hole cut in one of those heavy, plastic 55 gallon barrels isn't going to be as easy as using an Exacto knife, but I suppose we'll figure it out. I could look for something with the spigot already installed, but then the price starts going up ... and part of the point is a frugal solution to watering, not just throwing hundreds of dollars at the problem to save less than that on my water bill. It's not really all about the money, though - part of it is just the fun challenge of seeing just how cheaply (frugally) we can do things around here, with good results. It's sort of my personal experiment to see how far we can reduce our living expenses without major sacrifice.
My other concern is winter - I don't know if I can leave the rain barrels in place with water in them, because I'm concerned the freezing and thawing will crack the plastic, even of the heavier barrels. But I don't know that for sure, so I'll either find out, or experiment with one this winter to see.
Of course, if I want to start overengineering the project, I could always rig up solar powered heating elements for the barrels. ;o)
Although, I had my plastic pond at the old house that always froze solid in the depth of winter, and never cracked. So ... I don't know, I'll have to do some research on that issue.
We've been taking baby steps these last few months, in part because there's been such an overwhelming amount of stuff to do, and in part because we're just building up our buffer - the extra money we put aside every month for house projects. I didn't want to be spending it as fast as we saved it up, that's the whole point of having a 'buffer.' By next spring we should have it built up enough to be able to start doing some of the more extensive projects.
Okay, and there's a third reason for the baby steps - laziness. After the craziness of January through April - finding a house, buying one while selling another (to a buyer who tried to renege), and the disaster that was the 2 month move - I didn't have much energy or motivation for awhile. It's just starting to come back. Maybe next year I'll do better with the gardens.
Didn't I say that every year at the old house? I think my problem is I really want nice landscaping, but I'm just not much up for the work of it, or the initial expense. But eventually it'll come together - because for a little time and money spent in the early stages, my goal is a very low-maintenance garden scheme. Native plants that don't have high water needs, or need a lot of pruning or care; my rain barrel - soaker hose set up, which means when it's time to water the garden all I have to do is turn a couple of spigots on for an hour or so; and more plants and less lawn, to reduce mowing. Hey, I've seen articles in my Better Homes & Gardens magazine of people with beautiful landscaping, the kind I'm hoping for, and when I read the article it says it took them 20 years to get it to that point. So not having accomplished much in three months isn't the end of the world.
We did get almost everything we need to paint the dining room. One thing I forgot was spackling, because I want to countersink some protruding nails in the paneling, then smooth the spots over with spackling, before starting the painting. As soon as I get that, I'm going to start on the project, doing the nails and spackling a little at a time on weeknights, then taking a weekend day to do the painting. Hopefully I can get that done by next weekend.
We'll still have the floor to do something with, and the door to replace, both of which are going to be expensive, because I want special stuff, of course. Like a triple-paned thermal door with built-in blinds, and I'm considering radiant heating in the floor because that room is so cold in the winter.
The two projects I'm most interested in completing as soon as possible are the dining room (because it's so dark and dingy in there still), and the back deck - because I seriously miss having a covered back porch.
The projects that most need done, though, are a storage shed, and insulation.
Decisions, decisions. Not to mention time and money. But ... it'll all get done eventually. And planning it all out is half the fun.
Thanks for the information, Rhys - that does sound encouraging. I really don't mind if I need to get larger water storage containers. Like I said, the more, the better as far as I'm concerned, because I want to be able to water extensive areas all summer without running out during the dry spells. I'll find a way to camouflage them so they don't look too hideous sitting around the house.
There are only a couple things I wonder. Getting a hole cut in one of those heavy, plastic 55 gallon barrels isn't going to be as easy as using an Exacto knife, but I suppose we'll figure it out. I could look for something with the spigot already installed, but then the price starts going up ... and part of the point is a frugal solution to watering, not just throwing hundreds of dollars at the problem to save less than that on my water bill. It's not really all about the money, though - part of it is just the fun challenge of seeing just how cheaply (frugally) we can do things around here, with good results. It's sort of my personal experiment to see how far we can reduce our living expenses without major sacrifice.
My other concern is winter - I don't know if I can leave the rain barrels in place with water in them, because I'm concerned the freezing and thawing will crack the plastic, even of the heavier barrels. But I don't know that for sure, so I'll either find out, or experiment with one this winter to see.
Of course, if I want to start overengineering the project, I could always rig up solar powered heating elements for the barrels. ;o)
Although, I had my plastic pond at the old house that always froze solid in the depth of winter, and never cracked. So ... I don't know, I'll have to do some research on that issue.
We've been taking baby steps these last few months, in part because there's been such an overwhelming amount of stuff to do, and in part because we're just building up our buffer - the extra money we put aside every month for house projects. I didn't want to be spending it as fast as we saved it up, that's the whole point of having a 'buffer.' By next spring we should have it built up enough to be able to start doing some of the more extensive projects.
Okay, and there's a third reason for the baby steps - laziness. After the craziness of January through April - finding a house, buying one while selling another (to a buyer who tried to renege), and the disaster that was the 2 month move - I didn't have much energy or motivation for awhile. It's just starting to come back. Maybe next year I'll do better with the gardens.
Didn't I say that every year at the old house? I think my problem is I really want nice landscaping, but I'm just not much up for the work of it, or the initial expense. But eventually it'll come together - because for a little time and money spent in the early stages, my goal is a very low-maintenance garden scheme. Native plants that don't have high water needs, or need a lot of pruning or care; my rain barrel - soaker hose set up, which means when it's time to water the garden all I have to do is turn a couple of spigots on for an hour or so; and more plants and less lawn, to reduce mowing. Hey, I've seen articles in my Better Homes & Gardens magazine of people with beautiful landscaping, the kind I'm hoping for, and when I read the article it says it took them 20 years to get it to that point. So not having accomplished much in three months isn't the end of the world.
We did get almost everything we need to paint the dining room. One thing I forgot was spackling, because I want to countersink some protruding nails in the paneling, then smooth the spots over with spackling, before starting the painting. As soon as I get that, I'm going to start on the project, doing the nails and spackling a little at a time on weeknights, then taking a weekend day to do the painting. Hopefully I can get that done by next weekend.
We'll still have the floor to do something with, and the door to replace, both of which are going to be expensive, because I want special stuff, of course. Like a triple-paned thermal door with built-in blinds, and I'm considering radiant heating in the floor because that room is so cold in the winter.
The two projects I'm most interested in completing as soon as possible are the dining room (because it's so dark and dingy in there still), and the back deck - because I seriously miss having a covered back porch.
The projects that most need done, though, are a storage shed, and insulation.
Decisions, decisions. Not to mention time and money. But ... it'll all get done eventually. And planning it all out is half the fun.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The Rain Barrel Project
We've been toying around with ideas about how to install rain barrels for watering our gardens, to save on our water bill (the first one arrived last month, and it was rather shocking).
I saw a few suggestions in magazines and suchlike, and came up with a plan. I have since seen 'store-bought' versions of this for $200. Of course, they're more decorative (made to look like a Grecian urn or an oak barrel), but ... mine cost $20. So, there.
Here's the concept ... a plastic tote ($6 at Big Lots) ... a spigot, couple gaskets, and a nut fixture type thingie ($5, local hardware store) ... and a soaker hose ($8 at Big Lots).
I cut a hole in the tote with an Exacto knife, and got the spigot in, with a gasket on the outside and one on the inside, and the whole thing held in place by a plastic nut fixture that screws onto the inside of the spigot, to hold it in snug.
Then I ran the soaker hose off of that. I chose a soaker hose for two reasons. I believed that gravity would force the water out of the spigot without any type of pump, but I figured the water pressure would be too low to use an actual hose with a trigger handle. Besides, soaker hoses are much less wasteful - you wind it through your flower bed right at the roots of the plants, and the water oozes out, concentrated right where you need it, seeping deep into the soil to provide deep watering for the roots.
When I first got the spigot in, but before I'd hooked up the soaker hose, I tried turning it 'on' - and there was barely a trickle of water coming out. I expected a bit more than that, just from the force of the gravity. So I was afraid it just wasn't going to work, even with the soaker hose.
Wrong! It worked great! We stretched the soaker hose out along the front walk, and in a few minutes water was beading out of it along it's whole length. And creating quite good puddles on the walkway. Of course, it was a very slow process - which it is, anyway, soaker hoses being what they are, although I think they emit water at a quicker rate when powered by a hose hooked to the outside faucet.
But it doesn't matter how slow it is as long as it's working. It just means I have to leave the barrel spigot on longer, but it doesn't matter how long it's on, because it's not using purchased water, or any power.
The next question is whether or not the tote is large enough. I initially didn't want anything too big and unwieldy. But I've since wondered if this one is big enough on two levels. First, I'm not sure that it holds enough water to do repeated waterings to the bed during the dry summer months when it doesn't rain often (exactly when things will need water).
The second thought is, it might not be big enough and will overflow after a good rainy day or two. I may have underestimated how much rainwater is going to be coming out of those downspouts. This one was created for just one downspout, the one right at the corner of the 'dining room garden.' There are several more along the front of the house, so it's not handling the entire front half of the roof, maybe a quarter of it.
But I read in my Better Homes & Gardens magazine this month (where I saw the $200 rain barrels you could buy) that a 1,000 square foot roof can generate 623 gallons of water from one inch of rain. That sounds almost impossible to believe.
But, if true, it's actually good news - because the more water I can collect from the roof, the better for the gardens and my budget. When I eventually get all my landscaping done, it's going to be extensive. While I hope to incorporate a lot of native plants that are 'drought tolerant,' the thing's probably going to need some significant watering during July and August, when it's routinely in the 80s and 90s with no rain for weeks on end.
So ... the project is starting off well, anyway. One of these days - honest - I'm actually going to get something planted in that bed, and then I can start seeing how the soaker hose actually works out.
I saw a few suggestions in magazines and suchlike, and came up with a plan. I have since seen 'store-bought' versions of this for $200. Of course, they're more decorative (made to look like a Grecian urn or an oak barrel), but ... mine cost $20. So, there.
Here's the concept ... a plastic tote ($6 at Big Lots) ... a spigot, couple gaskets, and a nut fixture type thingie ($5, local hardware store) ... and a soaker hose ($8 at Big Lots).
I cut a hole in the tote with an Exacto knife, and got the spigot in, with a gasket on the outside and one on the inside, and the whole thing held in place by a plastic nut fixture that screws onto the inside of the spigot, to hold it in snug.
Then I ran the soaker hose off of that. I chose a soaker hose for two reasons. I believed that gravity would force the water out of the spigot without any type of pump, but I figured the water pressure would be too low to use an actual hose with a trigger handle. Besides, soaker hoses are much less wasteful - you wind it through your flower bed right at the roots of the plants, and the water oozes out, concentrated right where you need it, seeping deep into the soil to provide deep watering for the roots.
When I first got the spigot in, but before I'd hooked up the soaker hose, I tried turning it 'on' - and there was barely a trickle of water coming out. I expected a bit more than that, just from the force of the gravity. So I was afraid it just wasn't going to work, even with the soaker hose.
Wrong! It worked great! We stretched the soaker hose out along the front walk, and in a few minutes water was beading out of it along it's whole length. And creating quite good puddles on the walkway. Of course, it was a very slow process - which it is, anyway, soaker hoses being what they are, although I think they emit water at a quicker rate when powered by a hose hooked to the outside faucet.
But it doesn't matter how slow it is as long as it's working. It just means I have to leave the barrel spigot on longer, but it doesn't matter how long it's on, because it's not using purchased water, or any power.
The next question is whether or not the tote is large enough. I initially didn't want anything too big and unwieldy. But I've since wondered if this one is big enough on two levels. First, I'm not sure that it holds enough water to do repeated waterings to the bed during the dry summer months when it doesn't rain often (exactly when things will need water).
The second thought is, it might not be big enough and will overflow after a good rainy day or two. I may have underestimated how much rainwater is going to be coming out of those downspouts. This one was created for just one downspout, the one right at the corner of the 'dining room garden.' There are several more along the front of the house, so it's not handling the entire front half of the roof, maybe a quarter of it.
But I read in my Better Homes & Gardens magazine this month (where I saw the $200 rain barrels you could buy) that a 1,000 square foot roof can generate 623 gallons of water from one inch of rain. That sounds almost impossible to believe.
But, if true, it's actually good news - because the more water I can collect from the roof, the better for the gardens and my budget. When I eventually get all my landscaping done, it's going to be extensive. While I hope to incorporate a lot of native plants that are 'drought tolerant,' the thing's probably going to need some significant watering during July and August, when it's routinely in the 80s and 90s with no rain for weeks on end.
So ... the project is starting off well, anyway. One of these days - honest - I'm actually going to get something planted in that bed, and then I can start seeing how the soaker hose actually works out.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Books! More books!
This Sony e-reader was, without a doubt, the best present I ever bought myself. This is one of those things that (a) I'm shocked I went so long without, and (2) will never be without again.
I have read so much more since getting this. I have always loved to read, during some phases of my life reading an insane number of books. For awhile I'd kind of stopped reading, for a bunch of reasons. Much as I like to read, I'm picky about what I read. All of my books are still packed away. I hadn't gotten around to starting to use the library on a more regular basis.
The e-reader changed all that, because I have access to thousands of books - free! - from my computer. No due dates, no storing physical books. Oh, joy. And it's so convenient ... I don't have to worry about remembering to grab whatever book I'm currently reading and take it with me everywhere I go, or hassle with toting it around if it's a large book. If I find myself stuck waiting somewhere unexpectedly, no more thinking, "I wish I'd have remembered to bring my book." The e-reader gets stashed in my bag every time I leave the house, it's so small and light it takes up no room, but it's always handy. In fact, now an unexpected wait is instead a good thing - "Oh, I can read a little more!"
Initially I read a bunch more of War and Peace, but then made the mistake of getting off on a few tangents, and haven't gotten back to it yet. I read Treasure Island last week, and I'm now a third of the way into Two Years Before The Mast.
But the biggest bonus of the e-reader was discovering LibriVox. This place rocks! It's a volunteer project with the goal of turning every book which is in the public domain into audiobooks, which you can download free from their website. They have an awesome website, well put together, easy to navigate and use, where all of this work takes place.
The entire project is entirely volunteer, from the admin staff who run the thing (all super, super nice!) to every person who reads and records texts for the audio books. The coolest part is, anyone can volunteer. You don't need any experience, they have FAQs and a wiki and a plethora of help files to teach you everything you need to know to do this!
I've signed up, and have already recorded a chapter of a book, which is now in their project file, and when the entire book is completed, will be available as an audiobook on their website.
A large majority of the book projects are collaborative efforts. A book is chosen to be turned into an audiobook (most of the text files come from Project Gutenberg) and posted in a forum on the Librivox site. Then different people volunteer to read different chapters. You can read one or as many as you'd like, but the premise in the "collaberative" effort is that one person doesn't read the entire book.
As each chapter is uploaded, another volunteer 'proof-listens' for any major mistakes, such as long gaps or repeated passages.
When all the chapters have been read and proof-listened, then the files are combined into one audiobook by the admin staff, and made available on the site.
They also allow 'solo recordings,' where one person chooses a public domain text, and records the entire book by themselves. You upload it and the project's coordinator turns it into the audiobook file and puts it up on their webpage, like everything else.
I may try a solo project soon, but I wanted to get some practice doing chapters of collaberative works first. Recording yourself reading text is, on the one hand, pretty simple, but on the other, not quite as simple as it sounds - if you want it to sound good. The speed with which you read and speak is important, so if you do both fast in 'real life,' it's helpful to moderate it a little bit. It's nice to have some varied inflection in your voice appropriate to the text, and maybe change your voice a bit for different speaking parts - something that didn't come naturally to me at first, so I've had to work on. It's a trick to get some variation, without overdoing it and sounding fake. Also, it's much more time-consuming than it sounds. There's a lot going on! I've recorded myself singing before, but never reading - in fact, I've never known myself to have read out loud before. So it's a really interesting, brand new experience. At first I wasn't even sure I'd like it, but now I'm kind of mildly addicted to it, and can't wait to do some more!
I also discovered they are doing an audiobook of "A Pirate's Own Book," but all the chapters are already assigned to readers, so I volunteered to proof-listen instead, which is also fun (you get to hear snippets of books without investing in the whole thing - if you like it you can always go download the entire thing when it's done, or get the e-book version - and proof-listening doesn't take nearly as long as recording, so it's a quick, easy way to volunteer).
So if you love books, reading, literature, etc., go check out Librivox! I'm serious, this is a whole lotta fun, for a really good cause! (And no, no one asked me to say any of this ... I'm just so psyched about the project, I wanted to share it with everyone). You don't need any special skills, and only minimal equipment which you already have or can get free (explained on the site). They don't require you to have a 'special' kind of voice, in fact one of their premises is that the sheer variety of people's reading voices is what makes the projects special, and there is no "right" or "wrong" type of voice (as long as you can read clearly enough to be understood by the listener!).
(climbing off my soapbox now)
Hey, I just had a thought - as a bonus, I'm going to stick a widget in the sidebar with a link to the page containing any recordings I do, so you can check them out if you want. (Pages on the Librivox site will get moved as the project moves through different phases, so I will have to try to remember to update my links when that happens).
I have read so much more since getting this. I have always loved to read, during some phases of my life reading an insane number of books. For awhile I'd kind of stopped reading, for a bunch of reasons. Much as I like to read, I'm picky about what I read. All of my books are still packed away. I hadn't gotten around to starting to use the library on a more regular basis.
The e-reader changed all that, because I have access to thousands of books - free! - from my computer. No due dates, no storing physical books. Oh, joy. And it's so convenient ... I don't have to worry about remembering to grab whatever book I'm currently reading and take it with me everywhere I go, or hassle with toting it around if it's a large book. If I find myself stuck waiting somewhere unexpectedly, no more thinking, "I wish I'd have remembered to bring my book." The e-reader gets stashed in my bag every time I leave the house, it's so small and light it takes up no room, but it's always handy. In fact, now an unexpected wait is instead a good thing - "Oh, I can read a little more!"
Initially I read a bunch more of War and Peace, but then made the mistake of getting off on a few tangents, and haven't gotten back to it yet. I read Treasure Island last week, and I'm now a third of the way into Two Years Before The Mast.
But the biggest bonus of the e-reader was discovering LibriVox. This place rocks! It's a volunteer project with the goal of turning every book which is in the public domain into audiobooks, which you can download free from their website. They have an awesome website, well put together, easy to navigate and use, where all of this work takes place.
The entire project is entirely volunteer, from the admin staff who run the thing (all super, super nice!) to every person who reads and records texts for the audio books. The coolest part is, anyone can volunteer. You don't need any experience, they have FAQs and a wiki and a plethora of help files to teach you everything you need to know to do this!
I've signed up, and have already recorded a chapter of a book, which is now in their project file, and when the entire book is completed, will be available as an audiobook on their website.
A large majority of the book projects are collaborative efforts. A book is chosen to be turned into an audiobook (most of the text files come from Project Gutenberg) and posted in a forum on the Librivox site. Then different people volunteer to read different chapters. You can read one or as many as you'd like, but the premise in the "collaberative" effort is that one person doesn't read the entire book.
As each chapter is uploaded, another volunteer 'proof-listens' for any major mistakes, such as long gaps or repeated passages.
When all the chapters have been read and proof-listened, then the files are combined into one audiobook by the admin staff, and made available on the site.
They also allow 'solo recordings,' where one person chooses a public domain text, and records the entire book by themselves. You upload it and the project's coordinator turns it into the audiobook file and puts it up on their webpage, like everything else.
I may try a solo project soon, but I wanted to get some practice doing chapters of collaberative works first. Recording yourself reading text is, on the one hand, pretty simple, but on the other, not quite as simple as it sounds - if you want it to sound good. The speed with which you read and speak is important, so if you do both fast in 'real life,' it's helpful to moderate it a little bit. It's nice to have some varied inflection in your voice appropriate to the text, and maybe change your voice a bit for different speaking parts - something that didn't come naturally to me at first, so I've had to work on. It's a trick to get some variation, without overdoing it and sounding fake. Also, it's much more time-consuming than it sounds. There's a lot going on! I've recorded myself singing before, but never reading - in fact, I've never known myself to have read out loud before. So it's a really interesting, brand new experience. At first I wasn't even sure I'd like it, but now I'm kind of mildly addicted to it, and can't wait to do some more!
I also discovered they are doing an audiobook of "A Pirate's Own Book," but all the chapters are already assigned to readers, so I volunteered to proof-listen instead, which is also fun (you get to hear snippets of books without investing in the whole thing - if you like it you can always go download the entire thing when it's done, or get the e-book version - and proof-listening doesn't take nearly as long as recording, so it's a quick, easy way to volunteer).
So if you love books, reading, literature, etc., go check out Librivox! I'm serious, this is a whole lotta fun, for a really good cause! (And no, no one asked me to say any of this ... I'm just so psyched about the project, I wanted to share it with everyone). You don't need any special skills, and only minimal equipment which you already have or can get free (explained on the site). They don't require you to have a 'special' kind of voice, in fact one of their premises is that the sheer variety of people's reading voices is what makes the projects special, and there is no "right" or "wrong" type of voice (as long as you can read clearly enough to be understood by the listener!).
(climbing off my soapbox now)
Hey, I just had a thought - as a bonus, I'm going to stick a widget in the sidebar with a link to the page containing any recordings I do, so you can check them out if you want. (Pages on the Librivox site will get moved as the project moves through different phases, so I will have to try to remember to update my links when that happens).
Friday, June 12, 2009
A Chess Coup
When I was in school I used to play chess a lot, and was fairly good at it. Or, at least, everyone else sucked, as I won more than I lost. But I hadn't played in many, many years. When we bought the new house, Greg set up his glass chess set in the pub, and since then we've been playing from time to time.
I'm not very good anymore, I lose about 90% of the time, but it's still fun, and I hope I'm learning and slowly getting better.
Last night, though, I pulled off a real coup - I not only won a game, but won it in very few moves. I'm sure I'm not the first person to have done this, and I didn't even plan it out, it seemed to me to all depend on sheer chance - I couldn't have done what I did without Greg taking just a certain series of moves right at the beginning of the game, which he happened to do. The only 'skill' involved on my end was recognizing the opportunity.
Here's how the board looked at the end. It's kind of hard to distinguish the pieces, since they're glass - the frosted glass is white, and the clear glass is black. The easiest thing I can say is that all of my pieces (I was black) are still on my side of the board (the bottom of the picture) except the two that were captured, and the Queen, which is marked, as is the white King. I only moved 3 pieces, two of which were captured.
I can't remember exactly how this worked, but the gist was this (and I don't use that chess language, so bear with me). Greg moved out the pawn in front of his Queen's bishop, and I moved out the pawn in front of my King. We each moved out a bishop, and promptly each captured the other's Bishop, then one pawn apiece. I moved my Queen out to the far left side, right in front of my pawns. On my next move was when I noticed that I had a clear shot all the way down the board to two spaces over from Greg's King, and nothing could capture me there. So I moved, and said "Check" ... then looked a little harder, and said "... mate!" I hadn't even realized it was till I did it.
I'm really surprised he let me do that, as he's usually very good at chess, and would never have left himself open like that. But in the game before this one (which I lost), I captured his Queen - something else he never lets happen. So I think it was because it was late and he was tired. But hey - I'll take it.
I'm paying for it this morning, however ... I stayed up waaayyy too late last night. Fortunately, I only have to work till 2:30 today - I think I can manage 5 hours one way or another. Oy.
I'm not very good anymore, I lose about 90% of the time, but it's still fun, and I hope I'm learning and slowly getting better.
Last night, though, I pulled off a real coup - I not only won a game, but won it in very few moves. I'm sure I'm not the first person to have done this, and I didn't even plan it out, it seemed to me to all depend on sheer chance - I couldn't have done what I did without Greg taking just a certain series of moves right at the beginning of the game, which he happened to do. The only 'skill' involved on my end was recognizing the opportunity.
Here's how the board looked at the end. It's kind of hard to distinguish the pieces, since they're glass - the frosted glass is white, and the clear glass is black. The easiest thing I can say is that all of my pieces (I was black) are still on my side of the board (the bottom of the picture) except the two that were captured, and the Queen, which is marked, as is the white King. I only moved 3 pieces, two of which were captured.
I can't remember exactly how this worked, but the gist was this (and I don't use that chess language, so bear with me). Greg moved out the pawn in front of his Queen's bishop, and I moved out the pawn in front of my King. We each moved out a bishop, and promptly each captured the other's Bishop, then one pawn apiece. I moved my Queen out to the far left side, right in front of my pawns. On my next move was when I noticed that I had a clear shot all the way down the board to two spaces over from Greg's King, and nothing could capture me there. So I moved, and said "Check" ... then looked a little harder, and said "... mate!" I hadn't even realized it was till I did it.
I'm really surprised he let me do that, as he's usually very good at chess, and would never have left himself open like that. But in the game before this one (which I lost), I captured his Queen - something else he never lets happen. So I think it was because it was late and he was tired. But hey - I'll take it.
I'm paying for it this morning, however ... I stayed up waaayyy too late last night. Fortunately, I only have to work till 2:30 today - I think I can manage 5 hours one way or another. Oy.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
My New Best Friend - It Gets Even Better!
I am so totally in love with my new "Sony Blue" (as I call it). I'm like Siamese Twinned to it, I can't imagine living without it.
But it gets better! It also plays MP3s, which includes MP3 audio books. So on a whim tonight I went out in search of a free audio book to try out on it. I found this cool site (Librivox) which has a selection of free audio books, and a link for volunteers to read and record audiobooks for the site (which I may check out later).
I was browsing through the library and ran onto something called "The Madman and the Pirate" - which I'd never heard of, but was (a) public domain and therefore free; and (2) had the words "madman" and "pirate" both in the title, both of which combined to make me think this was something worth checking out.
So I downloaded it, put it on the Sony, and listened to a few minutes. Holy. Cow. The sound is awesome!!! (You do have to use earbuds or headphones - it has no external speakers - a minor point to me).
So the thing gets more amazing as the days go by.
Did I mention how much I LOVE this thing?
But it gets better! It also plays MP3s, which includes MP3 audio books. So on a whim tonight I went out in search of a free audio book to try out on it. I found this cool site (Librivox) which has a selection of free audio books, and a link for volunteers to read and record audiobooks for the site (which I may check out later).
I was browsing through the library and ran onto something called "The Madman and the Pirate" - which I'd never heard of, but was (a) public domain and therefore free; and (2) had the words "madman" and "pirate" both in the title, both of which combined to make me think this was something worth checking out.
So I downloaded it, put it on the Sony, and listened to a few minutes. Holy. Cow. The sound is awesome!!! (You do have to use earbuds or headphones - it has no external speakers - a minor point to me).
So the thing gets more amazing as the days go by.
Did I mention how much I LOVE this thing?
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Shopping Spree! New Toys!
I hate to shop. Really. I know it's unnatural (okay, a little stereotyping there), but I do. I detest stores and only go in one when I absolutely have to. I do buy things online, but I never just go and 'browse' and pick things up. I shop online when I need something specific (a birthday or Christmas gift, for example), and I go look for something specific.
Consequently, I don't spend a lot of money on, well, just shopping. Just going out and buying myself stuff. But about once a year (give or take a few months) I go on a little binge. I'll find something (or some things) that I really want, and I'll just splurge and get them.
That was this week.
First I got this cool-ass little hat.
I love this hat. It's just ... cool.
Then I got this awesome bag.
I've been seeing this in the What On Earth catalog for a long time now (a couple years?) and kept thinking, "I'd really like to get that." Well, I did. (That's where the hat came from too)
But the big surprise purchase was this!!
It's a Sony PRS505 e-book reader. Yeah! (Sorry for the blurry picture, I didn't want to use the flash, but it was really kind of dark when I took the picture).
Okay, here's the deal. Ever since Amazon came out with the Kindle, I've been wanting an e-book reader. (I spend a lot of time at Amazon, especially during the holidays, so I saw that thing splashed all over their main page every time I went there). And I do tend to be a little tech-geeky at times, wanting the latest cool little elecronic gadgets. But I usually don't indulge my whims and get them, as most of the time I can't justify the expense. So I kept thinking, eh - an e-book reader - I don't know. Do I really need this? So I'd wait.
Then the Kindle 2 came out, and I thought some more about it.
Then I decided to read War and Peace. I've always wanted to read some of the 'classics of literature,' and this year just seemed like a good time. So I went and got War and Peace at the library. Then I realized there was no way I was going to get through that book before I'd exhausted all my renewals. So I was considering buying it - but after the disaster of (a) getting rid of hundreds and hundreds of books over the last year, and (b) still having a freaking nightmare moving what I kept, I've been more and more wary of buying new books.
Not to mention the fact that the 5 lb. War and Peace (hardcover) was getting to be a pain in the butt to lug around.
I decided to revisit e-book readers. Not just for W&P, but knowing that there were tons of other books I want to read, and thinking how cool it would be to have dozens of books at my fingertips any time I wanted (oh, the joy when packing for a trip - not having to lug half a suitcase of books with me).
I went and did a ton of research. I rejected the Kindle 2 after all, and settled on the Sony PRS505. And I am sooo glad I did! The thing is amazing! It's perfect! I love, love, love it.
They use this new technology called "eInk" which - well, basically, replicates a printed page. Why, you ask? Well, I for one (and many others, from what I've read online) can have problems reading for long periods of time on traditional LCD or backlit screens. The eInk page actually, truly looks like a regular book page. In fact, after reading for a few pages, I noticed that it began to look more and more like someone took a regular page out of a book, and slipped it into a little frame with a window in it to view the page through. It's incredibly easy to read. There is no glare and no difficulty in different lights - I can read it as well in bright daylight as I can indoors with subdued lighting. Amazing!
And that's in addition to the utter coolness of being able to download thousands of free e-books! Oh yeah, there are plenty you can buy too - but the types of books I most want to read are generally out of copyright, and so available free. Just having all those books at my fingertips, without having to buy hard copies, store them, and worry about how to get rid of them if I ever decide I don't want them again.
(okay, yeah, there's the library - but that still involves lugging around physical copies, and worrying about returns and renewals)
So anyway, I am totally loving the "Sony Blue", it's like my favorite possession at the moment, and I don't know how I lived without it. Oh - and the bonus, I got a crazy good deal on it. Check this out: the Kindle 2 sells for about $350, which I was considering. The Sony's list price is $299, but I saw it on Amazon for $269. But just about the time I decided to get it, Borders sent out a very limited time coupon to us 'Borders Rewards' members to get the Sony 505 for $199.
How serendipitous is that? And if you're interested, I heard that the coupon is available on their website, and you don't have to be a Borders Rewards member to use it ... but it's only good till June 14.
So yeah - I blew some cash this week, but I got some awesome cool stuff. And that was my annual splurge.
And if you're considering an e-book reader, (a) DO IT; and (b) seriously consider the Sony PRS505 - I did a ton of research, and it does indeed rock. It's not the latest model - there's a PRS700 - but after comparing the two and reading tons of reader reviews, I - like a lot of other people - decided the slightly older 505 was better than the 'new improved' 700, on which their improvements actually screwed up several things, most notably the non-glare clarity of the screen. They still support the 505, so it's not on the verge of becoming obsolete or anything like that. And I definitely think it was the better option.
Consequently, I don't spend a lot of money on, well, just shopping. Just going out and buying myself stuff. But about once a year (give or take a few months) I go on a little binge. I'll find something (or some things) that I really want, and I'll just splurge and get them.
That was this week.
First I got this cool-ass little hat.
I love this hat. It's just ... cool.
Then I got this awesome bag.
I've been seeing this in the What On Earth catalog for a long time now (a couple years?) and kept thinking, "I'd really like to get that." Well, I did. (That's where the hat came from too)
But the big surprise purchase was this!!
It's a Sony PRS505 e-book reader. Yeah! (Sorry for the blurry picture, I didn't want to use the flash, but it was really kind of dark when I took the picture).
Okay, here's the deal. Ever since Amazon came out with the Kindle, I've been wanting an e-book reader. (I spend a lot of time at Amazon, especially during the holidays, so I saw that thing splashed all over their main page every time I went there). And I do tend to be a little tech-geeky at times, wanting the latest cool little elecronic gadgets. But I usually don't indulge my whims and get them, as most of the time I can't justify the expense. So I kept thinking, eh - an e-book reader - I don't know. Do I really need this? So I'd wait.
Then the Kindle 2 came out, and I thought some more about it.
Then I decided to read War and Peace. I've always wanted to read some of the 'classics of literature,' and this year just seemed like a good time. So I went and got War and Peace at the library. Then I realized there was no way I was going to get through that book before I'd exhausted all my renewals. So I was considering buying it - but after the disaster of (a) getting rid of hundreds and hundreds of books over the last year, and (b) still having a freaking nightmare moving what I kept, I've been more and more wary of buying new books.
Not to mention the fact that the 5 lb. War and Peace (hardcover) was getting to be a pain in the butt to lug around.
I decided to revisit e-book readers. Not just for W&P, but knowing that there were tons of other books I want to read, and thinking how cool it would be to have dozens of books at my fingertips any time I wanted (oh, the joy when packing for a trip - not having to lug half a suitcase of books with me).
I went and did a ton of research. I rejected the Kindle 2 after all, and settled on the Sony PRS505. And I am sooo glad I did! The thing is amazing! It's perfect! I love, love, love it.
They use this new technology called "eInk" which - well, basically, replicates a printed page. Why, you ask? Well, I for one (and many others, from what I've read online) can have problems reading for long periods of time on traditional LCD or backlit screens. The eInk page actually, truly looks like a regular book page. In fact, after reading for a few pages, I noticed that it began to look more and more like someone took a regular page out of a book, and slipped it into a little frame with a window in it to view the page through. It's incredibly easy to read. There is no glare and no difficulty in different lights - I can read it as well in bright daylight as I can indoors with subdued lighting. Amazing!
And that's in addition to the utter coolness of being able to download thousands of free e-books! Oh yeah, there are plenty you can buy too - but the types of books I most want to read are generally out of copyright, and so available free. Just having all those books at my fingertips, without having to buy hard copies, store them, and worry about how to get rid of them if I ever decide I don't want them again.
(okay, yeah, there's the library - but that still involves lugging around physical copies, and worrying about returns and renewals)
So anyway, I am totally loving the "Sony Blue", it's like my favorite possession at the moment, and I don't know how I lived without it. Oh - and the bonus, I got a crazy good deal on it. Check this out: the Kindle 2 sells for about $350, which I was considering. The Sony's list price is $299, but I saw it on Amazon for $269. But just about the time I decided to get it, Borders sent out a very limited time coupon to us 'Borders Rewards' members to get the Sony 505 for $199.
How serendipitous is that? And if you're interested, I heard that the coupon is available on their website, and you don't have to be a Borders Rewards member to use it ... but it's only good till June 14.
So yeah - I blew some cash this week, but I got some awesome cool stuff. And that was my annual splurge.
And if you're considering an e-book reader, (a) DO IT; and (b) seriously consider the Sony PRS505 - I did a ton of research, and it does indeed rock. It's not the latest model - there's a PRS700 - but after comparing the two and reading tons of reader reviews, I - like a lot of other people - decided the slightly older 505 was better than the 'new improved' 700, on which their improvements actually screwed up several things, most notably the non-glare clarity of the screen. They still support the 505, so it's not on the verge of becoming obsolete or anything like that. And I definitely think it was the better option.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Weekend Garden Work
I made more progress on the dining room garden this weekend. It doesn't look like much, but I know what it took to get here.
We bought and installed the mailbox post. This was so cool - I thought we were going to have to dig a hole and pour concrete and the whole mess, but Greg got this post-holding spike - it goes 2' into the ground, and holds the mailbox post with no digging or concreting. It's way sturdier than I thought it would be, so that was awesome.
We decided on a traditional mailbox-on-a-post because I want to do away with the mail slot in the dining room door - in fact, I want to replace that door entirely, and don't plan for the new one to have a mail slot. So it was either this, or one mounted on the side of the house, but I'm not keen on those and opted for this instead.
We didn't get the actual mailbox yet, because they didn't have any we liked at Home Despot, where we picked up the post. As usual, I want something unique. We'll work on that.
I also got the planting bed more or less done. I hauled out about another 6 wheelbarrow loads of dirt (on top of the ones taken out last weekend) - sheesh, where was this tiny space holding all that dirt? Anyway, then I dumped back in two wheelbarrow loads of the 'black gold' compost soil from the back. Greg wasn't kidding about that being black gold - the stuff is the consistency of half-baked fudge brownies, and when I dug it into the bed, it just instantly improved the condition of the existing soil. It probably would have done well with another couple loads, but I was exhausted, and needed to go make dinner.
This still needs turned and dug some more, to break it up a little more and give it an even better consistency. But I figured I'd let it 'rest' for a week before doing the final digging. I only have one thing to plant so far anyway, an azalea that was a housewarming gift from Greg's mom and stepdad.
I'd like to get the rest of the stuff to plant it up for this year - 2 more azaleas, and some annuals for the front for now. I'm not sure what all I'm going to be planting here of a permanent nature (other than the azaleas), but that's my starting point. Oh, I want some either purple coneflowers, black-eyed susans, or something similar for in front of the mail box post. And I was thinking about putting up a trellis with some sort of vine right behind it - in part to sort of camouflage the rainwater container that will be sitting back there..
I also need to get the tote I'm going to use for that, and get that set up, with soaker hose.
Well. A little at a time. This is all taking way longer than I would have liked, I often feel like I'm getting nothing done, and things are taking forever. But, I have to remind myself - we've only lived here for three months, and the living room, spare room, and bedroom are all almost done. Ish. Well on their way, anyway. And I've taken this dining room garden leaps and bounds from total imagination to reality.
So it's not so bad. It'll get there.
We bought and installed the mailbox post. This was so cool - I thought we were going to have to dig a hole and pour concrete and the whole mess, but Greg got this post-holding spike - it goes 2' into the ground, and holds the mailbox post with no digging or concreting. It's way sturdier than I thought it would be, so that was awesome.
We decided on a traditional mailbox-on-a-post because I want to do away with the mail slot in the dining room door - in fact, I want to replace that door entirely, and don't plan for the new one to have a mail slot. So it was either this, or one mounted on the side of the house, but I'm not keen on those and opted for this instead.
We didn't get the actual mailbox yet, because they didn't have any we liked at Home Despot, where we picked up the post. As usual, I want something unique. We'll work on that.
I also got the planting bed more or less done. I hauled out about another 6 wheelbarrow loads of dirt (on top of the ones taken out last weekend) - sheesh, where was this tiny space holding all that dirt? Anyway, then I dumped back in two wheelbarrow loads of the 'black gold' compost soil from the back. Greg wasn't kidding about that being black gold - the stuff is the consistency of half-baked fudge brownies, and when I dug it into the bed, it just instantly improved the condition of the existing soil. It probably would have done well with another couple loads, but I was exhausted, and needed to go make dinner.
This still needs turned and dug some more, to break it up a little more and give it an even better consistency. But I figured I'd let it 'rest' for a week before doing the final digging. I only have one thing to plant so far anyway, an azalea that was a housewarming gift from Greg's mom and stepdad.
I'd like to get the rest of the stuff to plant it up for this year - 2 more azaleas, and some annuals for the front for now. I'm not sure what all I'm going to be planting here of a permanent nature (other than the azaleas), but that's my starting point. Oh, I want some either purple coneflowers, black-eyed susans, or something similar for in front of the mail box post. And I was thinking about putting up a trellis with some sort of vine right behind it - in part to sort of camouflage the rainwater container that will be sitting back there..
I also need to get the tote I'm going to use for that, and get that set up, with soaker hose.
Well. A little at a time. This is all taking way longer than I would have liked, I often feel like I'm getting nothing done, and things are taking forever. But, I have to remind myself - we've only lived here for three months, and the living room, spare room, and bedroom are all almost done. Ish. Well on their way, anyway. And I've taken this dining room garden leaps and bounds from total imagination to reality.
So it's not so bad. It'll get there.
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