I have so many LOLcats saved on my hard drive, it’s time to start sharing them on a regular basis. Most of them are from “I Can Has Cheezburger,” like this one:
Happy Furday, cats and kittens. Enjoy your weekend. I hope to have some knitting news and pictures up here soon.
I will admit, despite my earlier reservations and protestations to the contrary, that I am enjoying the Harry Potter series. “Enjoying” may be too tepid of an adjective here. Since I began the first book a few weeks ago, I will confess to:
Needless to say, I think I’ve blown my book budget for August and September.
One of my co-workers, somewhere near the start of all this, asked me when it was that I knew I had changed my mind about reading Harry Potter. It was right around this passage, from the first book, somewhere around page 22:
Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she’d ever owned….
Harry knew that he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn’t easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws and Tufty again.
I think it was then that I noticed and began to appreciate the wry sense of humor in these books.
Despite my bachelor’s degree in English, I find it difficult to describe why it is that I prefer some writers, and why it is that I dismiss some books and laud others. It all comes down to how well I am drawn into the story. If a book makes it possible for me to sit on my living room couch, with cat and fleece throw and bottle of soda water, and read for hours without noticing the world around me, then I consider it a good book. Similarly, if I can go to a movie and forget I’m at the movie theater (and that the popcorn is too salty and that I need to pee and why oh why did I order a large frozen Coke when I knew I was going to sitting for two hours…), then I consider it a good movie. Wholly subjective, to be sure, but I’m sticking with it.
Nothing of any great moment has been going on with me. That, when combined with end-of-summer ennui, has led to the dearth of blog posts.
Not that I’m complaining. I enjoy a drama-free life; it just doesn’t generate much writing material.
I should be honest. It’s not “end-of-summer ennui.” It’s My-God-When-Will-This-End-Can-I-Come-Out-of-My-Cave-Now depression. I’m slogging through the last 100 yards of a mile-long race. Assuming I’m addressing a “normal” person — by which I mean “average” — it’s akin to how you feel in February. Spring is coming. Hope is around the corner. It’s almost, almost, almost here. Just Not Yet. Oh, and here’s another 12 inches of snow. Enjoy.
I’ll dig out from under soon, don’t fret. I have to write about knitting. I have to write about Harry Potter. Just right at this moment I need My Cave and a carton of Butterfinger ice cream.
Oh, and yarn.
I haven’t felt the blogging compulsion, and I’ve been struggling through these last, ghastly days of summer. Hate heat. Hate sunlight. If God had meant for us to go outside, She wouldn’t have invented air conditioning
So, what you get today, Gentle Reader, is a hodge-podge of completely unrelated material. Oh, and a LOLCat. I haven’t posted a LOLCat in quite a while.
Moving on.
I have been gaming with a passion. Morrowind, specifically. I’ve been feeling the need to spend time in a game with a well-developed lore system, which Morrowind has in spades and which Oblivion (the sequel to Morrowind) almost completely disregarded. Oblivion was flashy. The graphics were very pretty. It was soulless underneath all the pretty pictures, though. I haven’t been MMORPG-ing lately, either, for partially the same reason. In Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, I don’t understand the lore, or how the various races all relate to one another, and who hates who and who’s doing what to whom. I find that if I don’t have a reason for slaying the monsters/saving the princess/whatever, my motivation evaporates.
So, I’ve been in Vvardenfell once again. The latest incarnation of Laiane Wolfsong, Ranger and Opportunist, reached 40-something level and became incredibly bored. I don’t know about you other gamers out there, but if I’m not challenged, I lose interest quickly. So, new character time! Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you Haizea Phoenixborn, Blade Dancer. Let’s give the little lady a big hand…
I have no earthly idea how she’s keeping that bodice from pooling around her waist. Hollywood Fashion Tape?
Anyhow, for those of you who are interested, a Blade Dancer is a lightly armored, high-agility fighter (long sword, specifically) with magical abilities in the schools of Mysticism and Illusion.
For those of you who are not interested, here’s the picture I’ve been promising of He Who Makes Silly Cat Shirts wearing his silly cat shirt. Silly Cat sold separately.
This is the first sewing project The Husband undertook. I don’t know how many patterns pieces were involved. Eleven? He was very methodical and put it together over the course of a few days. I think it turned out very well, and I’m quite impressed with his talent. Buttons!? Interfacing?! That’s far beyond my meager talents.
A three-day weekend approaches; I hope to be posting more frequently. Or not. I might just stay in Vvardenfell for a while.
I’m about 10 inches into the body of the Tempting Sweater. Here it is hanging out on my back steps this morning:
And a closeup of the ribbing. Well, it’s ALL ribbing, but here’s a close up anyway:
Have I mentioned lately how much I love this yarn? I love this yarn. I have a deep-seated fondness and regard for Malabrigo (worsted and chunky both; I haven’t done anything yet with lace weight). I know Koigu addicts and those afflicted with the Noro-Virus, but Malabrigo is my drug yarn of choice.
I do have one small quibble with it — it smells like vinegar. I think that when they kettle dye the wool, they use something vinegar-smelling as a color fixative. I’m sure the Eucalan will take the smell out, but the salad-y smell gets overpowering at times.
I went ahead and cast on the second sleeve of the navy blue turtleneck. The navy yarn is a machine washable wool/acrylic blend — and it’s fairly soft — but I do have to say that after working with the Malabrigo the past few weeks has spoiled me rotten. This navy yarn feels like sandpaper in comparison.
In other knitting-related news, I am now in the triple digits on the Ravelry waiting list. Number 893 to be exact. I found out the other day that I was ahead of Franklin on the Ravelry list, which I found hard to believe.
Another tidbit of “found information” was my discovery that espresso steamers (in coffee houses) are an excellent way to straighten out the plastic cables on circular needles. I knew that heat would get the kinks out of them, but I’ve just used hot tap water. Terri took in some circs to Sweetwaters and they indulged her whim.
To balance out all these knitting blog posts, here’s a LOLCat for your consideration:
Unfortunately, my Caturday is going to involve errand-running in preparation for The Husband’s trip to Chicago for work-related training. I’m taking a few days off next week myself, and I need to stock up on Twinkies and aerosol cheese.
I [heart] the innernets. It nevers ceases to amuse me. So much information (and misinformation) so quickly, and so little time to read it all. I confess to being an information junkie. Not a “news” junkie who has to read the online versions of twenty different newspapers, but a Headline Skimmer, a Blog Reader, a Follow This Link Mouse Clicker who sometimes wonders how she got to a particular website when the last thing she knew was that she was looking up aggregious on dictionary.com and somehow wound up spending 15 minutes on kittenwar.com before checking on travel packages to British Columbia.
So, I have a few Found Things to share with you and, towards the end, the beginning of a discussion on sock yarn because I am, after all, a (pending) member of the Knitting Kitty web ring and should discuss knitting at some point. Maybe I should just confess that I enjoy taking pictures of yarn.
Tonight’s ramblings round the innernets have yielded the following:
1. The first LOLCat I have seen of the Rhode Island hospice cat who has been predicting patients’ deaths. Once you read the article, you’ll understand.
LOLCat courtesy of ICanHasCheezburger.com
2. This next one requires a bit of explanation if you haven’t been a regular reader of my blog. I’m a The Lord of the Rings fan (the books and the movies both) and one of my side-barred web comics, DM of the Rings, offered this little tidbit today:
Courtesy of Shamus Young’s DM of the Rings
Inserting a lengthy explanation of exactly why I think this is funny will make it unfunny, so I’m going to do that all in a footnote and you may read it if you wish. Or not.
3. Blogging is up next. I love looking at the referrals part of sitemeter to discover how people get to my blog. I get a lot of hits for “denamarin,” but I had a few unusual ones today — “using a steamboat cooker,” “i can has peach,” “lolcats+sink blocking,” and, finally, “rubber vulture.”
4. This last Found Thing segues into the knitting part of this post. I’ve discovered there actually is a web site full of yarn pr0n. My own yarn pr0n is nowhere near as good as the pictures on that website. /sigh.
Koigu
This is moderately good (for a clueless photographer), but that’s not the true color of the yarn. It’s darker in Real Life. I guess I will have to take it outside tomorrow and photograph it in natural light on the back steps, my usual photo shoot location. Someone alert the neighbors.
Since I’ve been digressing here for a while, and need to take a break and go drool over yarn, I’ll save my post on “Why do I Have 10 Skeins of Sock Yarn and Haven’t Started a Single Sock?” for a later time.
Let it not be said that I am not amenable to changing my opinions — specifically my opinion concerning the Harry Potter Phenomenon. Considering that I am a devoted follower of H.P. Lovecraft, who is frequently described as a minor hack writer, I should not be casting any stones in regards to what I deem “literature” and what I deem “tripe.”
LOLCat courtesy of ICanHasCheezburger.com
At lunch today, I learned that the Exceedingly Intelligent Wife of an Exceedingly Intelligent Local Attorney in her eagerness to read the final Harry Potter book actually shut herself in their bathroom. I admire that in a Reader. It reminds me of My Younger Self on several levels. A few encouraging bits in the media about Rowling’s deft tying up of loose ends in the series also piqued my interest.
So I ordered Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone from amazon.com. I got the mass-market paperback edition, with the rationale that I wouldn’t be spending too much money (and since I wasn’t spending too much money I could therefore justify the purchase of something a smidge more erudite — the annotated version of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land — and something “just for fun” — Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s Knitting Rules!).
I’m also looking for Something Else to Read because I’ve reached that part in The Fugitive when I want to slap Marcel into the middle of next week. “Albertine left you, eh? Perhaps it’s really not due to her lesbian proclivities and wild, abandoned desires but actually may have something to do with the fact that you’re an overprotective, overly jealous, clueless git?”
So, while I have this sinking feeling that I may be sucked into Pott-headness in much the same way people talk about being drawn into a stumbled-upon, coincidental televangelist broadcast and “finding Jesus,” I’m giving myself a few pats on the head about my trying to remain open-minded.
This whole enterprise may be a dismal failure. Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone may suffer a fate similar to The Blithedale Romance, or, Heaven forfend, I might actually enjoy reading it.
I have discovered the Higher Purpose for the fuchsia Malabrigo — the Tempting sweater from knitty.com sans bow. I don’t “do” bows or flounces or ruffles or petticoats or any of that other frou-frou, girly nonsense that screams, “I’m female; infantilize me!” I can barely manage pantyhose.
In any event, I have cast on for the medium size. I love working with Malabrigo. It’s simply luscious.
I’m spending the rest of the day knitting and gaming. Ciao, cats and kittens! Before I go, here’s a newly-discovered LOLCat for your amusement.
LOLCat courtesy of ICanHasCheezburger
[That's Rolling On the Floor Laughing - not Rolfing as in massage therapy or rolfing as in an onomatopoetic way of saying vomiting.]
After my post yesterday, I decided to spend some time on the ‘Net searching for more literary LOLCats. Now, it’s my understanding that the LOLCat phenomena encompasses not only the visual pastiche of “cat picture and silly misspelled caption,” but also the language alone which, to me, is heavily influenced by l33tspeak. The popular Cats Can Has Grammar post by Anil Dash discusses kitty pidgin in more detail.
As far as Internet surfing is concerned, I have the attention span of a dog. “Oooooo, this looks inneresting.” Click. “Oh, a link to something else inneresting.” Click. “How cool.” Click. “What’s this?” Click. “Look! A shiny!” Click. Click. Click, click, clickclickclickclick.
In any event, I type “lolcat literary” and stumble upon a blog post with 550+ comments, some of which are downright hysterical. At least, they’re downright hysterical to me, the Phi Beta Kappa English Major Who is Still Twelve Years Old on the Inside.
If you have time — and are so inclined — read through the comments. If you don’t have time, I’m going to post a few of the ones I like best. Oh, let’s make this a game! Name the Literary Allusion! Answers in the footnotes — no cheating! I think these are easy peasy anyway.
* * * * *
I can has peach?
O HAI MERMAIDZ! kbai
* * * * *
t3l3m4x0s: invisible daddy
su1t0rz: IN UR HALL, EATIN UR CHEEZBURGERS
0dyss3us: i can has ithaka?
p0s31dwn: NO WAI
* * * * *
OH NOES !! I IS SUDDENLY TRANSFORMD INTO MONSTRUS INSECT !!
[ "Hey, guys, you won't believe the size of the bug I just squished in Gregor's room." ]
* * * * *
IZ IN UR HORS
TAKIN UR BASE
* * * * *
oh noes! dark!
im in ur old age, cussin
DO NOT WANT!
* * * * *
A few overlap the LOLCat speak with syntax from old text-based MUD’s.
> IM IN UR MEADHALL EATIN UR GUYZ
> wh@ h4pn!!
> 5umbdy set up utz t3h 6renz0r!!
> hai I r hiro can I has arm?
> OH NOES 
> oh hai mom
> 4lL UR C4RLZ 4R3 83l0N9 T0 u2.
> i move zig make ur time.
> PWND
* * * * *
>UR IN HEL NOW
>U SEEZ A LAKE OF BURNIN FIRE
>U HAZ NO HOPE
N
>BEATRIZ IZ NOT THIS WAI
E
>BEATRIZ IZ NOT THIS WAI
S
>O NOES U IS EATIN BY A GRUE
>KTHX BAI
* * * * *
That’s all for today, cats and kittens. All this LOLCat speak has worn me out. I think I need ice cream.
One of my favorite things about blogging is discovering how total strangers get directed to It’s Furious Balancing. It’s one thing to tell my co-workers and friends, “Oh, go check out the picture I posted of Thomas/my latest knitting project/a gaming screenshot,” or hand them one of my Moo Cards with my URL on it, and another thing entirely to have unexpected (and certainly not unwelcome) guests.
I check the “referrals” section on sitemeter just about every day. A lot of people get here via Google searches on “denamarin,” or “Vanguard continental faction quest,” or “cable knitting.” Pretty standard stuff. Today, however, I discover that someone found me by a Google search on “lolcat proust.”
My curiosity was piqued, to say the least. Do people make LOLCats that allude to Proust?
A mouse click or two later, I find this:
The link to the photographer’s page is here.
And I’m firmly planted inside the house with the air conditioning set at 75 degrees, thankyouverymuch. I turned it lower a while back when I was steam blocking the Malabrigo scarf up in the cats’ room.
So, one thing off the list of things to do. Additional items include:
I can’t get my pictures of the blocked scarf to come out properly. It is a real pain to get the colors to look true, especially reds, unless you photograph in sunlight (and we all know how likely that is to happen). /cough
So, sorry, no scarf pictures today! Here’s a LOLcat instead.
LOLcat courtesy of ICanHasCheezburger.com
I am wiped out.
I spent the greater part of my weekend moving this blog to my own domain name and playing around with WordPress (which is new to me). A lot of what I was doing was playing with the aesthetic, comestic portions of this site, so I must confess that I’ve had very little inclination to actually work on content. Yet.
I am tired of staring at the computer screen. Well, for the moment. Considering that I equate Internet access with other necessities of life — oxygen, primarily — I know I’ll be back writing those discursive posts of mine. I still need to post about the madeleine baking episode and how, in the course of the madeleine baking episode, I discovered that Sonny Bono is responsible for me not being able to buy the final volumes of the new Proust translation in the United States until (get this) 2018.
As of today, I’ve relocated from Blogger to a new site with my own domain name –> itsfuriousbalancing.com. All future posts will now be on the new site. Update your bookmarks, if I can flatter myself with the idea that anyone has bookmarked me.
I’ve imported my old posts from Blogger, and it still looks pretty rough-drafty over at the new site (to me, anyway). It’s evolving, but come visit.
I’m thinking about, and taking steps to accomplish, moving this blog onto my own domain name and using WordPress as my publishing platform.
I’m going to blame Allan for this one. He’s the gentleman who commented yesterday on my madeleine post. We’ve since exchanged brief emails and I’ve spent some more time reading his (very well-written, erudite) blog.
I covet his footnote plug-in functionality.
No, seriously.
I must have footnotes that allow the reader to click on the footnote number, automatically go to the bottom of the page to read said footnote, then click on the “back” button to return to their place in the text.
Go over to his blog and play around with this. I realize I’m a blogging neophyte, but I hadn’t seen this before. Considering my methods (or lack thereof) of writing, this could have some serious consequences for It’s Furious Balancing. Lots of footnotes and other madcap blogging hijinks will ensue, I’m certain.
As to when this move to WordPress will actually occur, that’s up in the air. It depends on my learning curve.
Further bulletins as events warrant.
Photo courtesy of Meme Cats
