Return to the Scarf Project: work in progress

Whenever I make a scarf I tend to think of it as not actually having a pattern at all since I often do it in double crochet, or some very simple combination of very basic stitches.

Where I really go crazy is in the color selection. I'm lucky to now have a sizable yarn stash, with so many possibilities for creation and for crafting coolness.

By request of my sister, who is going away to college to become a professional chef, I've gone back to making scarves. Specifically, THIS one:

It's going to be much skinnier than the other scarves I've made - it's only 13 dc across.

As my sister's favorite color is purple, I'm doing this one in a tweed of purple chenille and dark gray yarns.

Close-up on the colors in the scarf.

I'm shooting to have this finished before June 15, so I guess I have to get a move on - I want it to be at least six feet long and I've only finished a third of it so far.

And I haven't even bought a copy of book 12 yet...

...because I'm waiting for the paperback to finally show up in my country.

Anyway, The Wheel of Time fans can now check out the cover artwork for the thirteenth book in the series.

Image from here. Do I smell a bloody rescue mission, at long last?!

Towers of Midnight is part two of the three-part finale to Robert Jordan's massive fantasy series The Wheel of Time. After Jordan's untimely death in 2007, Brandon Sanderson was pretty much hand-picked to finish the books, based on the extensive notes and material that Jordan left behind.

The twelfth book, The Gathering Storm, came out last year. Towers of Midnight is scheduled for an October 2010 release. And the finale of The Wheel of Time, A Memory of Light, is currently expected to come out in 2011.

I started reading this stuff after 1999, since I was introduced to the books by none other than my boyfriend. He has the entire series so far in paperback, and that's the other reason why we haven't picked up a copy of The Gathering Storm yet. Now I'm just as much of a fan as he, and I'm so looking forward to finally reading the climax and ending of this whole saga.

I have such high expectations of the final two books; the all-around awesome in The Gathering Storm is a major cause, but mainly it's just that, wow, how long has it been since this whole thing got started? It will be so hard to wait until next year to finally see the tale of The Wheel of Time completed, a full 21 years after it began.

Towel Day 2010: Hoopy froods.

25 May 2010: Commemorating Douglas Adams with a towel and a smile.

[Boy was I ever lucky my hair cooperated for this shot!]

Meal in the City: Daeyang Korean Restaurant, Kalayaan Avenue, Quezon City

[Hey, it's the much-awaited return of "Meal in the City"!]

It's been a very hot and humid few weeks in the city and temperatures are expected to keep rising. And eating-wise, that means my partner and I are turning up our noses at most soups. We'd rather have lighter meals, or if we have to eat a lot can we please have a lot of cold drinks on hand too?

This weekend we'd both been suffering some serious food cravings: he wanted lots of vegetables, while I was dreaming about kimchi, the older the better.

So we struck out on a hot and sunny Sunday morning for a serious, home-style Korean meal.

[Related Meal in the City post: Bibimbap, Mashitta - UP Diliman.]

We first went to a rather large Korean supermarket in the general vicinity of QC's City Hall - we wanted to know if they also served food. Unfortunately, we were told by the salesladies to come back in a month or so as they were still ironing out the kinks in their restaurant-to-be.

So we walked off along Kalayaan Avenue in QC in search of the next nearest Korean enclave, about a block or so away. Seeing an open door under the sign "Daeyang Korean Restaurant", my partner asked if we could try that place. I balked a little because I had hoped we'd at least go somewhere with air-conditioning, but finally gave in - Daeyang it was.

The restaurant had a rather...quirky...idea of interior decoration [the walls were full of scribbles from other patrons and visitors!] but the menu looked damn good, so we nodded at the waitress and placed a large order.


Bring on the banchan!


Here is a closer look at the appetizers: fish cakes kimchi-style, flash-wilted spinach with sesame seeds, paper-thin radish slices in a sour brine, and our favorite kind of kimchi. The kimchi was very strong, very bracing, and very welcome on that hot day!


More kimchi goodness in the form of kimchi jeon - sort of an omelet or pancake filled with chopped kimchi, other veggies, and squid bits.


My lunch: a massive bowl of dolseot bibimbap. The rice crust on the bottom was amazingly crispy and delicious. I doctored mine as customary - with a lot of gochujang, or chili soybean paste - and happily waded in as soon as it arrived.

Oh, and how massive is massive?


THIS massive! I mean, look at that - the stone bowl is so big it makes the nearby water pitcher look small!


And my partner's entree: a heap of beef bulgogi, which he ate with a bowl of plain white rice and the lettuces presented at table along with the banchan.

We started out the meal as the only patrons in the restaurant, but by the time we'd dug in a large Filipino family came in, followed by an unrelated group of four who ALSO ordered soju to go with their meal ["Well, someONE's getting blasted at lunchtime," I whispered to my partner].

And as we were finishing up we found out that the restaurant has this sort of eat-all-you-can promo going on: eat all the pork rib you want, charcoal-grilled right at the table, for 300 PHP per head, every Sunday. So we're definitely going back to Daeyang when a Sunday finds us in the mood for a feast that's straight out of the Flintstones.

A tale of loot pouring from the sky

Sometimes when it really rains the world's sturdiest umbrella won't be enough shelter.

But in a case like this I would really not mind getting drenched.

Here's a round-up of this year's accumulated loot so far.

1. Crafting loot


I hope you remember how happy I have been to complete my battery of crochet hooks.


And just for reference, this was my stash as of yesterday....


And here is my stash now. I think my ship just came in for the time being...that's a whopping ten pounds of yarn piled on top of the container, in shades of natural, black, and dark blue. It's a bit of a gift to me from dear friends of my parents.

You have no idea how my SABLE cup overfloweth right now.

I'm speechless and happy, is what I am right now.

Thank you.

2. Takarazuka Kagekidan loot


You've seen one of the books in this post already, but now it's arranged in the context of its sister purchases. I had a bit of a splurge sometime in April....

Well, that's that for now. I must away and get all my stash catalogued. Since it's a bit of a long weekend for me, I guess that means I'll catch you all on the other side. :D

Schrödinger's...fever?!

For some reason I've been spending the past couple of days unable to determine if I'm feeling well or unwell. One moment I'll feel like I'm on the verge of a fever - shaking hands, a case of the chills, the feeling that I've bent forward too far and will be falling flat on my face any moment. And then I'll feel fine enough to want to dance or even do a kickline.

As I mentioned in a Twitter status, "What is it with this persistent feeling of being under the weather?! Either I'm unwell or I'm not, I can't be both! *grr*"

And when I posted something like that on my Facebook wall someone replied with the famous cat who is neither alive nor dead. I should be happy they picked THAT particular image; I certainly would not have wanted the description to be something along the lines of the Weeping BLOODY Angels from Doctor Who!

I'm starting to think I may have caught something from someone last week, during the wake.

I'll try to go back to more regular posting from now on. In the meantime, enjoy this video and my current LSS, and don't forget to keep your eyes peeled for hyde-san's blooper!

Radio silence, why the Takarazuka Kagekidan, and "Until lambs become lions"

1. Radio Silence

You might be wondering why the blog abruptly fell quiet for a while; the answer is that my maternal grandfather died in the morning of the 12th of May. I had a shift at work that evening, so I went in and asked for bereavement leave, and then completed the classes scheduled on that night.

At the wake, which was located near one of Metro Manila's major cemeteries, some of my family decided to pay a visit to another pair of sleepers. These two are very famous, and after seeing the photo I'm sure you'll understand why:



I was surprised at my own reaction to seeing them in this rather plain and simple setting - it was something like Erm, that's it? We would never have found the tomb if it weren't for a helpful series of yellow ribbons tied to mark the path.

Back on the home front, my grandfather was buried on Friday morning.

It wasn't exactly an *unexpected* death - he'd been bedridden for years and had been depressed / refusing to eat in recent weeks. Considering the rather tumultuous history I've had with him, I had nothing more to say but "goodbye".

2. Why the Kagekidan

Because of the whirlwind of: May 12 shift (Wednesday night) -> proceed to wake (pretty much all of Thursday) -> be of assistance until the burial (Friday morning), I was bone-deep tired when I got home past lunchtime on Friday. So I fell into bed and slept like a ROCK.

After getting up and seeing my partner off to his Friday night shift, I had the rest of the night to myself - so how did I spend it? By watching two Takarazuka Kagekidan revues in a row. Nothing like seeing these powerful women sing and dance so well to make me feel better.

Many Takarazuka plays are paired with musical revues, and even the full-length musical productions like Elisabeth and Rose of Versailles end with a sort of mini-revue. In this case, I watched


The Showstopper - this revue was paired with a Takarazuka adaptation of the opera Turandot. This screenshot is from the "Besame Mucho" number near the end of the revue.


Neo Voyage - the revue that was paired with a Takarazuka adaptation of the opera Il Trovatore. This screenshot is from the amazing "Puttin' on the Ritz" tap-dance medley.

3. "Rise and rise again"
And finally, I was able to catch a screening of the new Ridley Scott film Robin Hood today. It wasn't half bad; I especially liked a specific emotional transition near the beginning of the final battle sequence.



Still, yeah, ain't Russell bloody Crowe a bit too OLD to be playing these sorts of heroes and roles?

Oh, great, delusions of grandeur.

Related posts:

What I did on Election Day 2010

Check this link out for a rather neat infographic showing the current partial and unofficial tally of results coming in from Monday's elections.

GMA News - Eleksyon 2010 - Dashboard

You know, seeing a few regretfully familiar names all over those results is REALLY giving me terrible flashbacks. Specifically, to THIS:

In the place of a Dark Lord you would have a Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the Morn! Treacherous as the Seas! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me and despair!

No one seems to remember the general unpleasant shenanigans many of those people have gotten up to - and yet people are still happily voting them into high office.

I mean, WHUT.

What I did on Election Day 2010

And there is the indelible ink on my right pointer finger. I voted in this year's elections.

May 10, 2010: The Philippines holds its very first automated elections. Positions at both the national and local levels are up for grabs. This entire election thing has dominated all topics of national discourse for at least a year. And that's not even mentioning the usual shenanigan-riddled time and general idiocy that was the campaign period.

So, of course, on D-Day, everyone is busily hoping the country doesn't collapse under the weight of its fears, ignorance, and general lack of sense.

Was out the door around 7am. Since I failed to transfer my voter's registration from the Fourth District of QC [where I used to live] to the Second [where I now live] I had to cross the city in order to vote.

My partner had it worse; he had to cross provincial boundary lines and vote all the way over in Bulacan, which is NOT part of the National Capital Region. The trip takes less than an hour, though, so transportation is not really a problem.

I packed as though for an expedition: I brought drinks and a book so I would neither dehydrate nor get bored. Arrived at the high school where my precinct is located after an hour's commute; cracked open the second drink and the book at around the same time.

[As an aside, I was the only one within sight to have thought of bringing some means of killing time. Sure, people were texting or whatever on their phones, but it sure felt weird to be the only one there reading a book. How much more unusual I would have appeared if I'd brought Hamster, or if I'd had an e-reader instead.]

An hour and a half or so later, I'm on page 101 of my book, and on the threshold of the classroom where I'm to vote. So I shut the book and went to check my name on the voters' list - I was still there. After another half-hour, I face the Board of Election Inspectors, pass their scrutiny, and receive a ballot, a ballot secrecy folder, and a marking pen.

It only takes about ten minutes to vote; I got paranoid, I read everything first before shading ovals. It takes two tries before my ballot is accepted by the PCOS machine. I cast vote number 156 in that precinct.

And then I'm done, at about a quarter to 11 in the morning. Four hours to vote, and most of that eaten up by both travel time and waiting in line. Oh well.

***

Now comes the hard part: waiting on the results. The polls are supposed to close at 6pm and then the machines must do the work that they were built for, which is to tally up all the votes. I predict the country holding its breath until some results come out - and then of course I haven't yet mentioned the usual bugbears of Philippine elections: cheating and a million and one ways of saying "I wuz robbed!"

Will update this post later, after 6pm.

***

UPDATE THE FIRST: More photos.

Me on the left, my partner on the right. After casting our votes we met up for a big lunch, with the crab in the picture being among the courses.

And now you know what we wore to the polls. Hey, even stormtroopers have to vote.

A day of reckoning: Election Day 'round the corner

Okay, this is me putting my money where my mouth is.

While the UK is waiting on the results of its general election, we here in the Philippines are gearing up for OUR polls, which will be taking place this coming Monday. I talked about the process of getting ready for the election in this post; now I'm going to talk about who I will be voting for.

*deep breath*

PRESIDENT: After several weeks of thinking about it and reading about all the candidates, their promises, their shortcomings, and pretty much everything all the various sorts of media put out about them, I've finally made my decision.

I'm going to abstain.

There is no one on that ballot right now who I would trust to lead my country.

VICE-PRESIDENT: Mar Roxas.

In my opinion (and I say that to make it clear that I think this way, and that everyone is free to disagree with it), if he had only decided to tell the Liberal Party that it would be wiser if they kept him on as their presidential candidate and then asked Noynoy Aquino to run as his veep, then I would have voted for their tandem - and I would even have volunteered in their campaign.

Since that's not what happened, I will content myself with voting for Roxas as VP.

SENATORS: Biazon, Drilon, Guingona, Inocencio, Lao, Osmena, Recto, and Roco.

I'm supposed to vote for 12 senators, but honestly, I do not want to return people like Revilla and Lapid and Estrada to that hall. Its reputation has been tarnished enough under their power-grabbing and -keeping ways. Can we have some new blood please?

PARTYLIST: AGHAM (the Filipino word for science).

If you seem confused by this, don't be. It's a means of getting the underrepresented sectors a chance at actually being represented in Congress.

And of all the organizations on that list - many of which are really dummy parties designed to help career politicians hold on to their power - this is the one I've picked. This country needs to have real scientists sit in Congress to help hammer out so many laws that could affect the environment, human rights, health. We need to inject the lawmaking body with a healthy dose of the scientific method.

***

With all the last-minute bugs and glitches bothering this country's first automated elections, I really hope nothing bad happens on Monday, let alone the next few weeks. I will, of course, keep you updated.

Crafty catch-up

Projects on tap:



1. A lovely and delicate stole made out of several ten- and twelve-pointed stars in crochet. Or I may even make two stoles if I have the time and enough thread. I will definitely give one of them to my mum. I won't be able to complete the stole in time for Sunday, but maybe I can finish it in time for her birthday next month.


2. If you're following the blog's Facebook mini-page, then you know that I am now planning to make my first crochet afghan, assembled entirely out of granny squares. These four squares will be the central motif. The intended recipient for this project is Mama, who is my mum's mum [in short, my maternal grandmother]. I cannot wait to see her this Sunday, and then to get started on her afghan.

3. Not exactly a crochet project, but I am planning to upcycle a few old tee-shirts into my own crochet hook roll-up keeper. Yes, I do keep them in a nice mesh pouch right now, but they kind of strike against each other whenever I move the pouch or dig in it for a hook. The noises made by the hooks can get on my nerves, and I also worry about their finish and the hook heads themselves - so it might be best to construct something soft and protective.

***

Today is National Star Wars Day! May the Fourth be with you!

Iron Man movie-verse takes ANOTHER level in badassery

No spoilers here. Just stills and captions, and that title, which I shall leave to you to agree or disagree with.

Forget Girls Gone Wild. No, really. The entirety of the Iron Man mythos - but especially so in the movies - can pretty much be summarized as Science Projects Gone Wild.

Don Cheadle in an action movie? Well, he kind of manages to pull it off here.

And Sam Rockwell plays Justin Hammer as a great big idiot jejemon!

At the climax of the movie, these two armored guys unleash a hell of a lot of firepower.

I really, REALLY could not stop myself from thinking, "War Machine = Gundam frigging Heavyarms." Without the running out of bullets bit.

Go, watch, and stay till after the credits!