Summer > Autumn

Track Listing:

You Ain't Alone - Alabama Shakes

Kick Drum Heart - The Avett Brothers

Kate - Ben Folds Five

O Valencia - The Decemberists

Sunshine - Matt Costa

Bag of Hammers - Thao

I'm the Man Who Loves You - Wilco

Whole Wide World - Wreckless Eric

cruise control

Track Listing:

California One/Youth and Beauty Brigade/Ask - Colin Melow

Born Secular - Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins

I Want A Pair of Cowboy Boots - Jens Lekman

Does Not Suffice - Joanna Newsom

To Go Home - M. Ward

Librarian - My Morning Jacket

The Verb - The Swell Season

Via Chicago - Wilco

The second one...

Because the world needs more rock and roll right now.

Track Listing:
Want It Back, by Amanda Palmer
The Only One, by The Black Keys
Palaces of Montezuma, by Grinderman
I'll Dream Alone, by The Magnetic Fields
I Might, by Wilco
Black Math, by The White Stripes
The Nothing Part Two, by Lady Lamb the Beekeeper
Short Version, by Wild Flag

In response to a request...

... I've decided to post the occasional short playlist on here. Here's the first one.

Tracklist:
East Harlem, by Beirut
I Want a Pair of Cowboy Boots, by Jens Lekman
Leonard, by Sharon Van Etten
No Nostalgia, by AgesandAges
It's Only Life, by The Shins
Bad For Me, by Brendan Benson
From Good to Bad, by the Bears
Kamera, by Wilco

Saturday!

 

 

This week has been momentous. Really that's an understatement as the past month has been momentous. My first semester is complete and I am reveling in the afterglow of confidence (bolstered by two As). This feeling of victory is a wonderful surprise from my previous fearfulness.

On my last day at Apple, one of my team members walked me out to my car to say goodbye. This silent gesture spoke volumes to me. As we walked into the parking garage, he stopped and looked at me. "Kirsten, you're making the best decision of your life right now." I was dumbstruck. My decision seemed to me one of desperation, impatience, and frustration. Shauhin's words made me rethink my approach to the future. He was right. This is the best thing I've ever done. I forgot what it's like to dig into a database and discover other's thoughts and share in their explorations.

"It's much better living it than it is looking at it." - Sondheim

The plan for the next two semester has been to take two classes this fall and four in the spring. This sudden doubling of my load worried me as my internship would be in the spring as well... I know other students have pulled 18-hour semesters and my load is comparatively light, but it seems like a lot to me going back and I want to set myself up for success.

You can imagine my relief when I discovered that one of the classes I'd planned on taking in the spring is also offered in the fall! The textbook ("This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can SAVE US ALL" by Marilyn Johnson) is delightful and humorous, a nice change of pace from cataloging. I've spent the majority of my morning laughing out loud at said book while sipping my latte and paying due diligence to Ramone (who seems to enjoy my stationary nature).

 

In the next two weeks of freedom I shall finish said textbook, sew my Dragon*Con costumes, and catalog my books in LibraryThing. LT was introduced to me in an assignment for my cataloging class and I became rather enamored of its layout and simplicity.

 

Oh! Something happened a few days ago. While cutting fabric for my Marvel Comics skirt, I managed to slice open my left pointer finger. I say 'slice' rather than cut due to a) the sheer amount of blood that came seeping out of my fingertip, and b) the fact that I cut well into my nail which was ironically painted bright red. This means that my Guild position of second-highest DPS shall suffer as will my knitting :( I am forced to play low-level characters and level my fishing. I have yet to go back to sewing and see how that is effected by my bandaged finger. Well I'm going to go shower and change the aforementioned bandage. Eww.

 

Posted with Blogsy

"Libraries are in a unique position.  Since most people have fond memories of their times growing up in libraries, and there are no real “library hater” organizations, most libraries have the luxury of time to reinvent themselves." - Thomas Frey


Clearly, he's never watched Parks & Rec:

Holy insight, Batman!

"The most important issue for all publishers, whether scholarly, school, trade, whatever, is the increasing dominance of a handful of major technology companies.  These companies — Google, Amazon, and Apple, with Facebook potentially jumping in — set the strategic agenda; scholarly publishers live in their world. Publishers that continue to work the tried-and-true strategy of library-facing content solutions will find their roles diminished. Unfortunately, these large tech players have little interest in the content industries they dominate — and in Google’s case, actually holds content companies in contempt.  Publishers have lost control of their own agenda. It is at this time unclear how or if they can get it back."
-Joe Esposito, Scholarly Kitchen (10/3/1011)




I think this guy hit the whole "standard" issue on the nose. Online content has no standard because it is not run by the content creators but by the technology companies.


Scary.

Pictures, as promised :)

Step One: Find your local fabric store

I found the closest Joann's fabric to me, which was up in Gaithersburg - about 45min away, but as it was a beautiful day I hopped into my beloved car and turned on a Nerdist podcast. While on their web site just now I found out that they have a student discount program - would have saved me about $20, so... yeah, I share my wisdom with you. You're welcome.

For the record, I did try to go to local stores (G Street Fabrics, Rockville), but none of them carried licensed fabrics. However, GSF had an amazing selection and nice prices, so I'll go back there sometime.

Step Two: Locate your fabric

This was the funnest part for me. I've grown up watching my mother sew our clothes for us (we wore smocked-and-collared Laura Ashley fashions well into the mid-90s) and playing in her homemade cotton creations. I always loved going to fabric stores when we visited the USA, and later in life going with my grandmother while I picked out the patterns for her to make me a Sunday jumper. Now as an adult, I can purchase whatever fabric I want, and I don't even need a pattern. Liek whoa. For someone who likes to make things up as they go along, it was a spiritual experience. More on that whole "makes things up as they go along" thing later....

I knew that I'd be making nerd-themed items, so I chose accordingly! I also chose some contrasting fabric, just for kicks. I was thinking about experimenting with pleats, so I wanted something with, for lack of a better word, flair.

Step Three: The hard part

The most difficult thing for me is the planning. I am familiar with basic hem theory, and I consulted the oracles of Pinterest and YouTube for some tutorials... the former was way more informative than the latter. Pinterest reminded me that pleats should not be factored into your waistline. They're basically invisible bits that appear later in the skirt. Plan accordingly.

I measured my waistline, divided it by a pretty number (number of panels I wanted), and cut that many inches of fabric plus six inches for elasticity and 1/2" each panel for a hem (I figured 1/4" hem would be fine). Make it as long as you want. I think I did about 16" since I wanted it to be above the knee. Pin the right sides together and start sewing up the vertical hems until I had them all in one cohesive strip. For pleats I did 2 1/2" wide strips.

Step Four: Betty Drapering

Then came the bit where I ironed out the seams so they looked like the below picture - so they don't get all turny and weird in the fabric. Pretty much I pretended to be Betty Draper (minus the cheating husband, cigarettes, and kids... so basically I whined about how bored I was by domesticity) while I flatted the seams and pinned the hem in place. See below.

Step Five: Sewing stuff!

Below you can see the finished hem. The pleats were a lot of fun to do, lots of folding and pinning things in place with bated breath, hoping that they wouldn't come out while sewing. A few more pics up you'll see the completed pleat, created by creating folding the fabric in on itself from the right and the left while pinning it in place. Once you see it, it makes sense. This is really when I began to see the skirt coming together and looking like a piece of clothing instead of fabric scraps. Kind of like when you put bread in the oven and then smell it baking from the other room... mmm. I should go get some toast.

Step Six: The waistband

I wanted it to be piratey, so I used a solid red fabric, much as a real pirate (see left) might use for a sash. Cut a long strip (again, your waistline + 6" + 1/2"W x your elastic band + 1" for hem and wigglespace) and sew it up the long side. Turn it inside out and insert elastic (this part took the longest, I recommend turning on Firefly or BSG before you start this), then sew the "sash" onto the waistband, making sure not to sew into the elastic itself (therefore the wigglespace).

Step Seven: Clean up

You know you made a mess with fabric scraps, pieces of paper, thread bits, and if you threw anything now's the time to clean that up, too.

Step Eight: Wear it

Woot! Sorry for the bad picture, it was taken late at night (I finished it around 1am, I think). You can see its awesomeness. More awesome skirts in progress.

Spending time outside the house helps me study. Lately it's been local cafés and Starbucks as my basement has been distracting, what with having internet and all. Plus the fact that I've been gaming more than usual, so, you know, I need to moderate that. My solution? Borrowing my mother's old 12" PowerBook G4. The only gaming I can do on it is old school StarCraft, which takes up too much time and dedication to be a real commitment. However it does have a browser and working Airport card, so I can pull up my articles and do posts while not being tempted by things like Flash movies (Comic-Con panels, *cough*) or Netflix... the computer simply cannot run such things. The poor laptop will also not support World of Warcraft, which is a very good thing.

School is really going well, though with a few small hiccups - to be expected on my first semester back. On Thursday I am going to CUA for an on-site visit regarding their technological resources and services. I'll be writing up a blog post about it for one of my classes. If for any strange reason you're interested to read it you'll find it here. Other than that it has been a flurry of posting on discussion boards and reading rather technical things while trying to salvage my own experience. It's been fun.

Something that has really made this past week fun is... I'm prepping for Dragon*Con by making my own costumes! On Thursday I made a trip to a Joann's Fabrics (about a lovely hour drive up to Gaithersburg) and purchased fabric for 1) a pirate skirt 2) a Star Wars skirt and 3) a Marvel Comics skirt. Yeah, I think I'm going pretty simple this year as I've never made my own clothes and... well it has potential to be disastrous. I decided to do the Star Wars skirt first. Of course me being me, I had my arithmetic wrong (yes, I did graduate from second grade... shut up) and so I need to fix that one. The next skirt I made, the pirate skirt, worked out beautifully, so now I know how to fix the first one! Yay! Learning from mistakes and persevering. That's what grownups do, right? I'm just glad I figured it out. The skirt, not the... you know what, whatever. Pictures will be up later, and Dragon*Con pics will be up sometime in September.

Another thing that has helped me survive learning this new craft has been NerdHQ, Zac Levi's (you know him as our favorite Nerd Herder, Chuck) live stream from Comic-Con of panels, where all ticket costs go to charity. This weekend I totally geeked out over Adam Baldwin and Nathan Fillion doing multiple panels and auctioning off paraphernalia while and answering awkward nerd questions. I'm ashamed to say that I watched all three Nathan Fillion events live, while forcing my poor sister to not talk so I could hear over the basement dehumidifier. There was also a Psych panel and a lovely Doctor Who panel, both of which had be guffawing and giggling happily while making multiple errors with pleats. Worth it.

So life is good.

The album from 'Of Monsters and Men' is also excellent. You should listen to it. Yes, you.

rhythm & repose

If you haven't listened to Glen Hansard's new album, it's up on NPR's First Listen program for the next week. Highly recommended.

My last post seems like forever ago. I missed academia. I missed having ambition and being knowledgable about subjects I am passionate about. Working retail really sapped that out of me. I was content to stay under the radar and work on my projects, but I was never after the next promotion or wanting to learn more about the next new product. Having such a rich life and education overseas made everything pale in comparison.

I say that to say that it's lovely to be back in school. To be using databases and thinking back on my experience and wanting to be more than I am. On Friday I visited CUA and talked to their manager of student services about their program... I'm in love with it. Their full time faculty are knowledgable and active in research, their adjunct faculty are hard-working and passionate. The building is old and creaky, and the campus is beautiful. I just want to be there.

Really one of the nicest things after my visit there is that I have an end goal. I know I have to bring up my GPA to X.XX before next spring because I want to be there. I want to be learning and absorbing and working with them. Such a lovely place. Having a goal and purpose changes everything. It's given me more energy in school and more interest in the details.