Knit me a therapy: links of the week

Showing posts with label links of the week. Show all posts

Sunday, 14 June 2009

Links of the week, 14/06/2009

On Friday evening, I found myself in the company of friends. As the dinner conversation turned onto Star Wars, we retreated to a computer, and indulged on some videos. What started as a harmless video, quickly ended in a very fun game of I see your X and raise you a Y, with awesome results. I thought that sequence of videos would make a great Links of the week.

The session started with the Robot Chicken Star Wars special. The link only goes to selected clips, but it should give you an idea of how the rest develops.

From this parody, it was minor side-step to the Total Eclipse of the Heart Literal Version. There are plenty of Literal Videos around, but I think this is one of the best. It is also a fantastic earworm, and this is coming from someone who once had the Llama song stuck in her head for a week.

On the parody song theme, we arrived to Title of the Song, a template for pretty much every boy band song ever. I think the laughs on the track simply add to its greatness.

The mention of Tetris took us neatly to the Nintendo A Cappella. That wasn't what the original person had in mind, but was indeed a human Tetris.

From here on the links get tenuous; we probably stopped linking things, and just went for the cool/awesome factor. I believe the John Williams A Cappella followed the previous videos.

This was then topped up with the Evolution of Dance, which is currently the second most watched video on YouTube.

Then we saw the XXXtreme!! Shepherding, which Ravelry fans might already be familiar with. Pong should have lasted for longer.

And, despite the reluctance to rickroll friends, the last videos watched were the Literal Rickroll (not to be confused with how Rick Astly rolls), and the BigButtRoll - Sir Mixalot vs Rick Astley, which works disturbingly well.

It was a great evening. I only hope all the links are correct, and that they can capture the awesomeness of the evening. I really had to share it.

Sunday, 31 May 2009

Links of the week, 31/05/2009

Lots of space and aero this week, apparently!

How Sesame Street Changed the World: I used to watch Sesame Street when I was little (there is a picture of me when I was about 1 and a bit years old watching it, in black and white!). Of course, I couldn't know about all its benefits back then, but I still remember their song about crossing the road when the light is green.
Carina Nebula Panorama from Hubble: I shouldn't look at space pr0n at work, but this is just amazing.
B-2 Spirit: Isn't this, well, sexy? I'm drooling over this plane. Look at the trailing vortices in picture 5. I'll be in my bunk.
Robot exoskeleton: Robot exoskeletons are something very common in science fiction. While the ones in real life have, at least initially, medical applications, most of the ones I have read about or seen are involved with heavy work (like in Aliens) or warfare (for example, in Starship Troopers - the book, not the movie!). I want one too.
Rendezvous around the Moon: Before Apolo 11 made it to the surface, Apolo 10 tested their systems.
10 Amazing Sculptures Made of Typewriters: I learned how to type in my father's electrical typewriter. However, I do remember very vividly how once, when I was quite small, I went with him to the high school where he taught, and there was a very old typewriter lying around. I spent hours playing with it, watching the little arms move.
Whack-A-Kitty: No kittens were harmed in the production of this video. WARNING: may melt your brain of cute.
3D murals: Amazing murals. I have had trouble distinguishing what is real from what is drawn.
Waiting for Godot: I have tickets, I have tickets!
Hubble's final servicing mission: Several pictures of the last Shuttle mission, to service Hubble. We like Hubble, and I want to be an astronaut! I also learned a couple of days ago that one of the astronauts in this mission is a huge Star Trek fan, so NASA encoded the movie and beamed it up, so they could watch it aboard the ISS. Which is awesome.
Infrared picture of Shuttle Atlantis: I really want to be an astronaut!
PARA ABNORMAL: Knittar is a recurrent character in Para Abnormal, which leads me to think he is a knitter or has a knitter in his life. This time, Knittar fights the enormous Quilt Giant OF DOOM! Thursday's comic is also knitting-related. Subscribe to it and reyoince in the yarn.

Sunday, 17 May 2009

Links of the week, 17/05/09

First, two movies:
Coraline: On Wednesday, I went with my S'n'B to see Coraline. It was great! Aside from the fact that I went out with friends, the movie was very good. The stop-motion and the 3D worked really well, and it was full of crafty bits (so much knitted stuff). Good nightmare fuel as well. I would really recommend it.
Star Trek (11/0): And, on a rare event, I went out twice this week to the cinema. On Saturday afternoon, Alex and I saw Star Trek. I quite enjoyed it. For being an odd number, it was quite decent (hence the "zero" renaming, not just for the origin bit). I am only familiar with Star Trek from second-hand experience (ie, ie2, though I've seen Wrath of Khan), but that was enough to get some of the references (hehe nuclear wessels). It is now quite strange to play Civ4, voiced by Leonard Nemoy. I liked it, and I think I want to broaden my Star Trek horizons after this.
BBC NEWS Magazine: Are we all capable of violence?: I have just finished reading Blindness, which centres around a dystopia. Most dystopias end up incredibly violent, because violence is there in all of us. I like this article and how social behaviour influences the make up of our violent brain.
Science tattoo emporium: Science tattoos.
Life’s First Spark Re-Created in the Laboratory: The origin of life is currently explained as starting in a warm soup, with self-replicating molecules forming. This step remained elusive to re-create in a lab setting, until now. I do hope it's all true and correct, because it would be awesome. Life created in the lab!
Get organized: 12 Minutes to Go: I am not a very good housekeep, truth be told. We manage to keep mostly on top of dishes and laundry, because they are more visible, but other normal cleaning gets a bit abandoned. Alex is much better at it than I am, but we'd still rather play games than clean. I am trying to follow this small list of tasks, in the hopes to minimise the massive cleaning sessions when we finally realise we've not cleaned for a while. A little often can go a long way.

Sunday, 10 May 2009

Links of the week, 10/05/2009

I find myself with a bit of extra free time lately, due to a series of events, so I thought it might be a good idea to restart the links of the week. Especially because I've found a way in which it is even less work for me to set them up!

feeling stitchy: Crafty Blog School: Feeling Stitchy has a quite nice Blog School series, with all sorts of tips to set up and personalise your blog. Link goes to 3rd item in the series, about creating a personalised banner, but they are all worth perusing.
PocketMod: The Free Recyclable Personal Organizer: While I'm thinking on buying some form of PDA/smarphone, I like this paper alternative to a PDA. I normally carry my planner and a small notebook with me, but this is still a good thing. You can create many different templates to print, and carry your small organiser with you. I really like the different options the printouts have.
Silver's Sock Class (tutorials): All manner of socks tutorials. The standard one sock in 4 dpns, but also one toe-up sock on two circularl needles, and the incredibly exciting and incredibly scary two toe-up sock on one circular needle. I might need to try this last one, but I think I will do that in one of Alex's socks, and the ones that I plan to knit for me will be lacy, and it will probably confuse the heck out of me (his are just moderately plainly ribbed).
Needles & Knots: Heel Compendium: And one the same topic of socks, a page with instructions and pictures for all manner of knitted heels.
Where No Flag Has Gone Before: Good paper on the political and technical challenges behind putting a US flag on the Moon. I especially like the technical ones, of course!
Creative minds: the links between mental illness and creativity: Brains are funny things. I've held discussions over the illness/creativity link, and whether it's better to be horribly depressed and creative, or normal and less creative. For me, it's an easy question: I'd rather be normal than creative, because my creativity was no use for me when I couldn't get out of bed. But I can see how creativity in different areas can be linked to mental illnesses, and I like how the article approaches their "uses".
Green Karat: recycled jewellery: One of the threads in Remnants talked about diamonds, and the discussion led me to re-search for this site. They do all sorts of jewellery with synthetic diamonds/precious stones, and recycled gold and other materials (I seem to remember mostly from computers). The jewellery is really nice and really geeky as a bonus, so I wouldn't mind getting something from here. I'll see how many pennies I have in my piggy!
Microcopter: Having studied helicopter dynamics, I can assure you that they fly by magic. They shouldn't, much like bumblebees, but they do. They are sustained by people's belief that they will fly.
Cynical-C Blog: The Cynical Blog collects one-star reviews from classics of their genres. I read them and often wonder whether we read the same book or watched the same movie. For the books, I'm tempted to say they got it through Babble Fish several times before reading. Or something.
Rain's Knit-Bits: Blocking acrylic: As we've seen recently, blocking can have an enormous effect on even materials that don't block as easily. In my copious spare time I plan to start an acrylic lace shawl, and I will block is thus.

Sunday, 9 November 2008

Links of the week, 09/11/08, with bonus yarn

Octopus ancestor: Things should not be called Setebos. Incidentally, my copy of Olympos had some pages repeated. I went to the bookshop to get a replacement copy, but all the ones they had in stock had the same problem. They are ordering me a new copy.
Knitting a song: Via TECHknitter. Quite amazing stock motion, and I can't even imagine the time it must have taken, even machine-knitting it.
Amigurumi tutorials: The tutorials I have been using this week when putting together my little robot. Which is only missing the eyes, so it will be finished soon!
Knitting as therapy: An article about the medical benefits of knitting, how it helps people with illnesses, and how it connects with meditation and channels pain and obsession. I often try to write down why knitting has helped me overcome depression, but invariably someone has written it better than me. Maybe it's still to recent to write properly about it.
High speed photography: I've always been a bit fascinating by it.
Woolly Wormhead needs your head!: The designer Woolly Wormhead (I've met her!) needs your head measurements for her statistical analysis of heads for hat patterns.
London from above: Occasionally when I fly into London, depending on the winds and were I'm coming from, I get to fly over the city of London, so I've seen similar sights if I do it late in the day or in winter. It's truly wonderful, and London is huge.
Yarn monsters: It's things like this post that I like to show to people when they mention that knitting is just for grannies knitting shawls.

And that is all for today. My last yarn purchase has arrived, Crystal Palace Panda Soy, a specific sock yarn without any animal content. I got it from The Woolly Workshop and, like my previous online purchases, it arrived safe and without any problems. These yarn is planned for the Wonderland Socks, which I think are one of the most awesome patterns ever.

Sunday, 26 October 2008

Links of the week, 26/10/08

... or links of the whenever Cristina has enough time, bother, energy and health, which apparently seems to be only every two weeks.

Animal testing (no time of hysteria): I'm not just plugging this because I went to uni with the writer. I found it was a very good article on animal testing. I think I just dislike people preaching to me, which is what a lot of the activist against animal testing seem to do when they are out on the street campaigning.
Bibliography for American Gods: If you haven't read American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, I highly recommend it, especially if you like contemporary fantasy and/or mythology. This is part of Gaiman's bibliography for the book, and I would love to have the time to read it. Alas, knitting, the web, and work take up a lot of it!
The best views from a toilet: Pee with style!
Death Star pumpkin: That's no pumpkin.
Cute pictures of animals: I like the cute!
Is there a God?: As said earlier, I don't like preaching, but it's not the first time I have been ambushes by christians trying to tell me that god loves me and I should love him back. I have read the Bible, and it's not for me. I find this ads a bit of a refreshing change, and I like that they still have room for doubt. After all, we might be wrong!
Mind erasing: There are some things from my past I appear not to be able to let go. Nothing major, just little things that bug me, and end up spiralling out of control and making me down. So yes, no matter if those bad moments also made me who I am, I might want to get rid of those memories.
Naked martian robot: Might be not safe for work if your work doesn't like naked robots!
Zeppelins!: The surest sign that you are in an alternate reality is if there are zeppelins about.
Baby pandas: Today's overdose of cute is brought to you by south west China.

I also bought the book Creepy Cute Crochet yesterday, so expect some totally adorably eeeevil creatures popping up soon!

Sunday, 12 October 2008

Links of the week, 12/10/08

I've been working extra the last two weeks, due to a work deadline (this includes coming back home at 9 pm, which does not make me happy). That and migraines (related, I'm sure) haven't left me super happy. On the plus side, Alex's socks are the right size and I have worked enough extra to earn an extra free day.

Nerbots: Give a new life to old electronics and make them cute!
I didn't knit that sweater for you: If you are in Ravelry, you must have just not logged on for the last couple of weeks to miss this, but just in case
Baby tigers!: Baby tigers!
Weaved geeky scarf: I want to learn how to weave just for this. I would love this scarf
Images of Mercury: Mercury rotates soooo slow, that one side is completely boiling and the other frozen off.
Baby orangutans!: Baby orangutans!
Two Lumps: I discovered this comic thanks to Fluzz (hi Fluzz!), about the life of two cuts. Comics like this make me laugh out loud.
Baby lambs!: Baby lambs!

Sorry for missing them last week, blame it on the migraines too!

Sunday, 28 September 2008

Links of the week, 28/09/08

What do you know, it's that time of the week again!

Tubular Cast-On for 2x2 rib: After the Sizzle fiasco, I got a fit fed up and cast on for something else: Emerald, solving all my dilemmas about starting Emerald or Wisteria (I'm still working on Sizzle, though). Wanting to do it properly, I decided to do a tubular cast on to make the edges nice, and this is the one I followed (the second method).
Yarn fibres (jpg): Ever wondered how yarn looks amplified? Wonder no more! This picture compares how different yarn fibres look under the microscope, which in turn sheds some light about, say, why some fibres are slippery while others aren't.
Real Jayne Hat for auction: Adam Baldwin is auctioning on eBay the real Jayne Hat, with all proceeding going to charity (the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation). I don't have enough shiny pennies, certainly not for what it's going, but it is an awesome idea.
Oooh, the little dragon: I have a kitten named Dragon. Once I was reading a book, which featured a dragon named Kitten. I might have squeed.
Container homes: Hiro Protagonist, the main character of Snow Crash (which you should totally go and read, although beware that Neal Stephenson, while an amazing writer, does not believe in endings per se), lives in a shipping container, as do his entire neighbourhood. This company would make that possible. A small place, sure, but it doesn't look too horrible.

Sunday, 21 September 2008

Links of the week, 21/09/08

Soooo much Spore progress, all lost! Stupid computer :(

Talking of Spore...: A blog I read as a good post about its silly DRM, and about consumer ethics. Worth a read!
Baby tigers!: What more do you expect? Baby tigers!
Lost in translation: I find that online translators are ok to get the idea of, say, blog posts in a foreign language. They are not good, and they do sound funny, but they get the point across. However, when you put something back and forth through babel fish... well, funny things happen.
The family trunk project: The creator of the Family Trunk project is designing one knitting pattern in honour of each of her ancestors (to great-grandparents). It is a beautiful project. You can buy some of the patterns with real money, or by sending her certain number of pages with your own family story!
Blog tools: A list of different blog tools. I haven't checked them all, by far, but it has some, in case someone wants stuff for their blog.
Icon Buffet: Icon Buffet is a site to get free icons. It has a "catch", though! You have to trade them! You get certain tokens a month, and then trade your sets of icons with other users. It's quite fun, and the little icons are cute (note that this is the site where a bunch of the ravelry pretty icons come from!). If you join, I'm pocketsize there, so friend me! (if you are super nice, let me know and I can send you an invite, to get me some points!)
Architectural photoshop: Sadly, this structures are not real, but were that we could bend the laws of physics!

Back to Spore, hopefully it won't crash and loose my progress this time.

Sunday, 14 September 2008

Links of the week, 14/09/08

Better later than never, I would like to say to all of you a bit THANK YOU for all the lovely comments in my wedding accessories post. They were so nice!

I have been trying to catch up with the internet from the days I was away, as I did not check my email at all while on holidays. This clearly proves that I am not an addict!

ATLAS (LHC) assembly montage: As you are probably aware, the Large Hadron Collider was turned on on the 10th September. The world, of course, didn't end (teeny black hole would have been teeny). Here is a video of the assembly of the ATLAS experiment.
Nanoships in medicine: One of the problems with tumors is that some of them are very difficult to access, and medication cannot be delivered to them directly, arriving in very dilute quantities. This nano-ships, coated in chocolate (well, a compatible lipid) so that the inmune system doesn't notice them, can travel in your blood stream and deliver the drugs straight to where they are needed! For now, this has only been tested in mice. We are, however, one step closer to the nanogenes from The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. You know the ones I mean.
Road safety, Mars style: Like good drivers, the Mars Rovers can't talk to Earth and drive at the same time!
National Geographic Photography Contest: The images from the contest have been turned into walpapers. Like a lot of "extreme" pictures of the Earth, they look alien and beautiful, and I will totally use one of them when I get tired of my current yarn walpaper.
Bears like chocolate too!: The oldest known polar bear is ill, and has lost lots of weight. At the moment, she is on a diet of chocolate and cupcakes, because it's one of the few things she can eat and is helping her put some fat on for the winter ahead. Mmm, chocolate.
Invisible skyscraper: is invisible!

Sunday, 31 August 2008

Links of the week, 31/08/2008

At the moment of publication, I am in Spain, visiting my family for a wedding I really didn't care about (although it gave me some cool knitted and crocheted items, which I made in my attempt to be eccentric). At the time of writing, however, I am stuck in the office, waiting for the license to use the testing harness to become free, so I can run my tests.

Special Olympics Scarves: For the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games, Coats and Clark are doing a sort of campaign, getting knitters and crocheters to make blue and white scarves to give to every Special Olympic athlete. While you can only use a specific yarn and colours, I thought it was a good idea and, while I might not do it, maybe somebody else will. I have to say, after watching House (Babies & Bathwater) yesterday, I have a strange need to knit hats for premature babies, so I might just do that instead.
Migrain Expressions (book) extracts: While I get bad migraines, they are mostly under control, and now they only visit me every couple of months or so. None-the-less, the extracts from this book touched me deeply, even if I have a toned down version of the migraines. I am very tempted to get this book (found via a review in But you don't look sick!)
Recicled yarn out of newspaper: How to spin (with a drop spindle) yarn out of a newspaper. I'm not sure how the yarn would be, but it has to be alright. Maybe for a couple of drop bowls to just put stuff on?
The Omnivore's Hundred: 100 foodstuffs every omnivore should eat. I have done fairly well (will post at some point a detailed list, if I get bored), but I clearly need to keep trying. I didn't have a clue about a whole load of those food, so thank goodness for Wikipedia!
Project Euler: Want to learn a (new) computer language? Project Euler offers a series of exercises to solve, with increasing difficulty. While they might take you some time to complete, all solutions should appear within one minute of program time. As the complexity of the programs increases, so will your knowledge of your chosen language!
Exoskeleton!: This exoskeleton helps peoole paralysed from waist down walk again. The new breed of cyborgs is nearing. Plus, it's really cool and helpful for people.
Cones to the rescue!: My grand plan, which clearly won't happen because I'm lazy, involves making several of these and placing them around Alex's model army, mainly around the models on the floor.

Ok, so this were mostly links collected the previous week, when I blatantly missed my links. I've done better this week!

Tuesday, 26 August 2008

Where were the links, you may ask

I hope nobody worried about the lack of links of the week this Sunday. I spent the weekend, including Monday (Bank Holiday), visiting Alex's parents. The days before going, when I could have typed them up, were spent battling (and eventually defeating) a nasty migraine, so I really didn't have the energy.

I had a very nice weekend with Alex's family, involving nice food and nice drink, although it also involved working in the fields and getting algae off a pond. Which, although tiring and messy, was remarkably satisfying. As the algae was picked off the pond, it kept reminding me of fleece, and I really need to check whether algae can be spun. The colours we were getting were incredibly vibrant, and spun would make for the best camo fabric ever.

I like Alex's family. Soon after arriving back home yesterday, I run into yet more problems with my family (about my visit soon). But then Alex said that I could share his family! I can't take it all, because they are his family and he wants them too, but I can share his nice family! Hurrah! He makes me so happy.

Sunday, 17 August 2008

Links of the week, 17/08/08

Sleeeeeeeepy.

The miracle of blocking: The only reason the lace glove fit around my hand was due to some heavy blocking. I thought I was going to have to redo it with a bigger hook!
Telephonic sheep: Cool phones, looking disturbingly like sheep. I bet you can use them to confuse city kids that have never seen one in real life.
Knitting app for iPhone users: Free app to help you keep track of repeats and progress.
Where no flag has gone before: Contractor report on the design and implementation of bringing a flag to the Moon.
Artificially created biological brain controls a robot: I, for one, bow to our new cyborg overlords. Scientists from Reading university have managed to control a robot (a Frankenbot) using organic tissue, which is quite cool. They are using it in their research to study how memories are stored. No word on their world domination plans.
Sir Nils Olav, penguin: In a really cute move, the King of Norway has knighted the penguin, mascot of the Royal Guards.
Hubble archives: This is the latest image released from the Hubble, to celebrate its 100,000th orbit of the Earth. The site is full of amazing images and breathtaking colours.

Sunday, 10 August 2008

Links of the week, 09/08/08

It is that time of the week again! I think this week is a good one, too.

Wooden SF sculptures: Awesome wood sculptures of several geeky gadgets. I particularly like the Ark of Covenant (close your eyes!) and the mechanical suit of Stephen Hawking.
Keyring crochet hook tutorial: Small tutorial on how to make transform a crochet hook (metal, cheap) to carry always in your keyring. I personally like to carry around many crochet hooks, so I can then spread them on the table wherever I am, and pick the best one for the job. I like having the appropriate tools, but I also love the looks I get!
Sculptural elements of crochet: I'm a bit into my made-up Tachikoma pattern, and I've been looking at crochet and amigurumi resources to help me out. I found this one particularly interesting, and I intent to use some of their form explanation on my toy.
Classic Doctor Who in 3 easy steps: Playing my foreigner card here, I only discovered Doctor Who after I moved to the UK, and I only watched any when it started again. I have been meaning to watch some of the classic Who, but there is just so much of it! This article gives an introduction to classic Who, and a selection of episodes to get a feeling for the old series. I have yet to take them up on it, though, so I can't vouch for how good it is. I should probably ask someone who knows *giggles to herself at the pun*
The Fermi Paradox: The Fermi paradox basically states that, if the universe is big and old, and there is some intelligent life that has gotten off its planet (note: the article explains it better), how come we haven't met any yet. The article explores the answers to this question that science fiction has presented throughout time. I really like the Meat one.
Wordpress themes: For those of you using Wordpress, here is a selection of custom themes that I found very nice. I plan, in my copious spare time, to contact the designer and ask her if it's ok for me to try to transform some of those into blogger themes, so I'll keep you posted on that.
Is cancer evolving?: This is an extremely interesting article looking at the evolution of cancer (and by evolution, we mean Darwinian evolution, not how it changes within one individual as it progresses). Some cancers, like a form found in Tasmanian Devils, can transfer from one individual to another, a process that has also been noted in accidental experiments in humans. Please don't panic, you still can't get cancer by sneezing, but it makes for a fascinating read.
Britain from above: This is not just plain satellite images of Britain, but they have been superimposed with information about life here. So some show the flight paths, and the phone connections, London taxis. The images are part of a new BBC documentary/series/not sure what, that starts today at 9 pm. I don't normally watch broadcast TV, but this might be worth a watch.
History of Internet Memes: If you've spent any amount of time on the internet, you'll get a bunch of these. I'm not sure what else to say, but it will certainly enlighten all of us in the knowledge and history of the Internet. Or at least the more viral sites.

In other news, my phone, which is only 1 1/2 years old, has become stupid and the battery only lasts one day. I am not impressed.

Sunday, 3 August 2008

Links of the week, 03/08/2008

Oh noes, I', some minutes behind my arbitrarily decided schedule!
I normally write this up on Saturdays, but I went out yesterday, and had a lovely day, with private fireworks display included, so I forgot. And by private fireworks, I mean I had a lovely view from my balcony.

Twist Collective magazine: First issue of the twist collective magazine is up. I fell in love (and subsequently bought) with Wisteria, and plan to make it at some point, honest. I also really like their Houdini socks (yet another way to make sock heels) and their colour work, which I think I'm going to use soon in a capelet I'm going to make.
Lego Knitting Machine: Do I need to say more? Lego is awesome! I have no idea how knitting machines work, but I know this one is made out of Lego, and that makes it great.
Palette Generator: You can upload a picture to this little generator. It will pick up the colours of the picture, and generate a palette to use. You can pick the colours for a garment to use it as a memory of a particularly nice photo, and I thought it was a great way to immortalise a moment.
Bubbles!: Because I'm so mature, I still blow bubbles and chase them around. While I'm not sure bubbles are meant to be preserved, these pictures are beautiful, and capture the bubbleness that makes me so happy while I chase them.
A Galaxy Einstein Ring: The gravity of a galaxy is deforming the light we get from the galaxy behind it. Pure awesome.
Pictures from the sun eclipse: On Friday there was a sun eclipse. It was total only in Siberia and parts of China, so most people only got a bit of darkness. Here are some pictures of it. Notice that, when you see all black and the partial sun, that's not actually how it looks! Unless you get a total eclipse, a partial eclipse simply makes everything dark, as if it was getting cloudy, but getting colder. Still cool, though!

Sunday, 27 July 2008

Links of the week, 29/06/08

It's hot outside. Normal people go out and play in the sun, and then go to work like lobsters on Monday. Me? I hide! Sun is hot. I might go out for 5-10 min to the balcony, and then it gets too hot and I have to go in. Sure, I'm a lovely shade of white, but I don't go re!

Anyway, as I am inside, drinking cold coke, here are some links for your perusal!

The Rebel Knitter's Guide (Guardian suplement): Remember Mazzmatazz, and the Doctor Who patterns problems? (which might be on the way to a peaceful solution, without needing to take out the needles). She is the author of the Guardian's Guide to Knitting, out yesterday. Interviews and several patterns ahead.
NASA images: Space images will make me happy any time of the day!
Kitten Wars: Kittens will also make me happy. One day, I will have one.
Optimism software: Sadly, it's not a handy piece of software that I can upload to my brain and be optimistic. I wish. It is, however, a handy piece of software to track down moods, coping mechanisms, sleep hours, triggers, etc. The best thing is that you don't really have to think about it: most of it comes in handy ticky-boxes, so you get the options and can check them, rather than having to think from scratch about what was going on. I've downloaded the demo, and I'm trying and playing with it. If I find it very good, I will buy the full version at the end of the week, and keep using it! I'll let you know how it works out, but for now, you know it's there/
Recycling sweaters for yarn: Having been in the process of unravelling a store-bought cardigan that I wasn't wearing (for approx fingering weight cream cotton), I found this useful, especially to break the cardigan into pieces. Now, were that unravelling was as fun as knitting, I would have finished this months ago, and not still being about. Buy, my laziness aside, it's a good resource.

I hope there aren't too many lobsters around! If it burns too much, tomato slices, cucumber or even yoghurt will soothe your burning skin.

Sunday, 20 July 2008

Links of the week, 20/07/08

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: Last chance today to see Dr Horrible for free, you won't regret it.
What do NASA engineers do in their free time?
Why, design their own Moon rocket, of course!: Apparently tired of the official space program, a group of scientists and engineers at NASA are designing their own, in their own free time and with their own resources. This is how space progresses!
Scary sounds and stories: Mp3 versions of old scary stories (some read by Boris Karloff himself!) and a collection of spooky sounds, to scare little kids (or players!)
Who's killed Hitler again?: Time travel is possible, and people keep going back to kill Hitler. But that appears to be a fixed point in time, and it cannot be undone (otherwise time-travel would not be invented). In the style of a wikipedia editors page, this is the time-travellers discussions.
Sound on salt: Cymatics is the study of the effects of sound waves in physical objects. In this case, salt, and it's really cool the way the waves are represented. Beware the the noises get very high-pitched in the video, so you might want to mute it half-way!

Happy Moon Landing day, everyone!

Sunday, 13 July 2008

Links of the week, 13/07/08

Only 4 links this week, I am afraid. However, you might have noticed that the ravelry progress bars to the right now have smiley faces! So I guess I can link that too (I wrote it as well in Ravelry), and now it's 5 links!

Books to the ceiling (quote): I want to have more and more books. To the ceiling. I really liked this quote.
Xtreme!11!! chess: Who knew chess was such an extreme sport? These people alternate chess and boxing, and winning the match is determined by either of them
Zeppelins!: The main sign of an alternative universe is the presence of Zeppelins. This is why we knew the parallel universe in Doctor Who was one, and it is a clear sign. How this factory is going to rip the space-time continuum to transport us to somewhere parallel escapes me, but it should be awesome.
Bunny!: I want to learn how to sew. Sewing machines are expensive, though! But this comic amused me.
Ravelry progress bars happiness info

Sunday, 6 July 2008

Links of the week, 06/07/08

Ok, I have to confess, I nearly forgot about this! It probably doesn't help that I wasn't at work on Friday, so my internal clock got thrown off, and I have plans for the weekend.

The Queens Arms: This is what I was doing on Saturday, having pub lunch here with some friends from Uni!
Slow Food Market (Bristol): And then, on Sunday, I'm going to buy tasty food...
Stitch'n'Bitch (Bristol): ... before going to my local S'n'B!
Space technology in out everyday lives: Ok, some real links now. This is a list of all the things that have been developed for or severely enhanced during the space program, that we now use every day.
Astronomy picture of the day: Although, sometimes, these pictures make it worth it, because they are beautiful.
Adding graffiti to *other people's* photos: This camera is triggered by people's flash, and manages to superimpose another image (in this case a graffiti) on other people's photos. I find it really cool.

Sunday, 29 June 2008