Annie’s Quilt

I made this quilt for my friend’s baby, and I definitely learned a lot while making it. For starters I didn’t use a pattern for this one (I know, get me, I made one other quilt and then thought I’d learned enough to just do what I liked. Not the case really). In future I think I will follow some sort of guide at least, but since this was just basic squares it seemed simple enough. And it was, I just should have paid more attention to my seam allowances. I ended up unpicking rows of squares a couple of times to make the lines match up better, but in the end they still weren’t right. Lesson learned. I like to think Annie won’t mind too much, and maybe even when she’s older she will like it all the more for its imperfections.

Anyway, here are some pics.

This is when it had been pieced together but no wadding etc. You can still see the masking tape along the sides to tell me which row went where. I did spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to get the squares ‘just so’, to give it the best arrangement, but I don’t know if I managed it.

Artfully thrown over the chair.

Now with wadding! And pinned ready for quilting.

Quilted and trimmed. Another lesson learned: don’t sew too close to the ends, because when you trim you will cut off your nice tied ends and the thread will unravel, and you will have to sew it again. You would think this would be obvious, but not to me. D’oh.

Now quilted and binding done. I decided to do some little squares for the corners, for no real reason except I loved that fabric and wanted to use it, but I didn’t have enough left for a full sized square. I do think I will do a little square quilt one day, with my left over fabrics.

Finished!

And the back view. Again, if I had remotely thought it through, then those squares on the back would have been in line with the ones in front. Then the quilting lines would match. Ah well.

Still, I am quite proud of it, and happy to see the finished result. This quilt was done entirely by hand, but I have just bought a sewing machine, so it will be interesting to see how I feel about quilting when it’s done a bit speedier. I do like sitting in front of the tv happily sewing though, even if it is slow going.

Book 46: Brooklyn

Set in the 1950s, Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn is a sweet story about Eilis Lacey. She lives with her mother and older sister Rose in Ireland, has good friends and a happy enough life, but there’s little work in the town and she’s stuck working in a shop for the horrid Miss Kelly. Her three brothers have already left to work in England and Rose wants more for her sister. She talks to Father Flood, visiting from New York, and arranges for Eilis to move to Brooklyn where she can have better opportunities. Eilis initially doesn’t want to go, thinking Rose would be better off leaving as she’s much more independent, but Rose is doing the dutiful thing of staying home to look after their mother. So off Eilis goes, withstanding the choppy ocean crossing, and finds herself a lodger with Mrs Kehoe and various other girls. She starts working in a department store, deals with homesickness, and starts night classes in book-keeping. She also meets Tony, a young Italian man, and falls in love. She is just starting to feel settled when shocking news from home sends her back to Ireland, and leaves her torn between duty and love.

This is quite a lovely book. It’s nice, with a simple story and believable characters you can become invested in and worry about. It’s not especially groundbreaking, and I’m surprised to read so many accolades, with reviewers calling it the book of the year. It’s a good read, but it’s not a great book. In fact, after reading some reviews I found it somewhat underwhelming. I was expecting much more from it. I’m not sure if I have missed something that others see. It’s not very meaty I suppose, it’s straightforward with not a lot of conflict and you can pretty much see where it’s going, with no big surprises or twists. The writing is accomplished, though I think if I had been reading it on my commute I don’t think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much as I did in one sitting. The writing is of the kind that doesn’t lend itself to snippets.

I’m not sure what else to say about it really, plus it’s been over a week since I read it and I didn’t make many notes, so that’s not helping. In short, nice enough, nothing spectacular, not sure what all the fuss is about.

Twilight

I finished it. I have to say, I’m a little disappointed. Disappointed because it wasn’t actually that bad. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all kinds of rubbish, the writing is terrible, the characters often dull and not at all fully fleshed out (does Rosalie even speak once?), but it’s not as dreadful as I was expecting. I thought there would be much more unintentionally humorous things, much more for me to poke fun at and mock. But all in all my main reaction is ‘meh’. Because it’s not so terrible I feel like writing a thousand words on why it should be burned, but neither is it so good I feel the need to gush about it. It’s actually not that much worse than the Point Horror books I read as a teen (though not anywhere near as good as Christopher Pike), so I can understand why it’s being read, I just can’t for the life of me understand why it’s been such a huge hit.

For anyone who has been under a rock for the past year and has missed out on the book and the movie and the hysteria, Twilight is about a young girl, Bella, who moves to Forks, a small Pacific Northwest town, to live with her estranged father while her mother follows her boyfriend (husband?) across the country while he tries to become a baseball star. Great role model you got there Bella. And there she meets Edward, beautiful, stunning, mesmerising (you get the idea) Edward, who happens to be a vampire. And they fall in love. Allegedly passionate all-consuming (read: unhealthy) love. Edward doesn’t prey on humans, and neither do his family, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to, and so Bella is basically one step away from death the whole time. And she’s pretty fine with it, as long as she gets to be near Edward. Being away from Edward is a fate worse than death after all.

What I’ve heard from so many people is that they just couldn’t put it down, even if they thought the writing was terrible and trashy, they still had to read it. I didn’t get that. The first two thirds of this book were a chore to read. I had to force myself to pick it up again. Because nothing happens for an age. And you have to listen to Bella, possibly the most boring narrator in the history of literature (and I’ve read The Remains of the Day for goodness sake!), going on and on about boring things, written in a style that makes you think putting a nail gun to your head would be a better way to spend your day:

“When I got home I unloaded all the groceries…I wrapped potatoes in foil and stuck them in the oven to bake. When I was finished with that I took my bag upstairs. Before starting my homework, I changed into a pair of dry sweats, pulled my damp hair into a ponytail, and checked my email.”

Is anyone still awake? And it goes on and on like that for hundreds of pages. It finally picks up in the last third, although even her discovery of his being a vampire is dull. She’s so damn calm about it, she doesn’t ask any questions, she just accepts it and continues with her boring life. I mean, come on, you’re fine with this, like he just told you he has a bad skin condition or something? You don’t ask immediately how old he is, has he ever killed anyone, or why in god’s name he’s in high school? Oh of course not, because she lurves him. Already, when they’ve had all of two conversations.

I go on and on here, not all of it makes sense I’m sure…

Everything and the Kitchen Sink

Last night I saw Monkey: Journey to the West. Wiki can probably do the plot more justice than I can, but here’s the gist:

Monkey is born from a stone egg. He becomes sad at the thought of dying and so goes off in search of the answer to immortality. His selfish ways get him in trouble and he is imprisoned for 500 years. He is released on the condition he will protect Tripitaka on his quest to find ancient scrolls (hence the journey bit), and they are joined by Pigsy and Sandy, plus the poor soul who had to be dressed as a horse for the duration. I’m assuming he was the untalented one? And there are adventures in undersea worlds and volcanoes, and battles with spider women and skeleton demons.

Pigsy, Tripitaka and Sandy

I had no real idea what to expect when going into this. I’d looked at the website briefly and read some of the reviews which raved about it. I am not as blown away, must be said. It is visually stunning. I can’t really put into words how much time and effort must have gone into making this production. There are something like 50+ cast members, all in amazing makeup and costumes. The set pieces are beautiful, there are video sections based on the cartoon, even the lighting is fantastic. The performers are ridiculously talented, with contortionists, dancers, martial arts, you name it they can do it, and there was hardly a misstep throughout the whole show, which is some feat considering what goes on.

Monkey fights Pigsy. Is cocky while doing so

So why can’t I rave about it? Well, there is so much going on, it’s difficult to take it all in. Not only do you have all of the above, but also plate spinning, unicyclists and rollerbladers. Every time you think you’ve seen everything, something else comes along. Simplicity is not the word. Also, it is all done in Chinese. It’s lovely, to begin with, and I can see why they did it, and it adds to authenticity. But. Chinese means subtitles. And so you’ve got all these beautiful set pieces and actors and acrobats going on, but you can’t watch it all, because you have to keep an eye on the subtitles to follow it (subtitles which, on occasion, went too fast or disappeared altogether). I gave up reading it during the songs, and just listened, because the words added nothing to the story, or the feel of the show, and were often just ‘Beautiful hill tops, oh how you glow, I am on a long journey, we must do away with regret.’ Totally made that up, but you get the idea.

Volcano scene

Another problem I had, a big one too for me, I just did not like Monkey. At all. He was supposed to be cheeky (ha, cheeky monkey) and I guess fun, but I just found him annoying. Really annoying. I thought in the beginning that he would change halfway through, you know, the usual epiphany sort of thing. But no. He’s just the same at the end as he was at the beginning. He’s selfish and arrogant and instead of getting taken down a peg or two, he’s basically rewarded with gifts. I would have liked him to have a better punishment than the imprisonment. He never seemed to learn anything from his actions. Hmm. Possibly I have missed something.

Big Buddha

So what did I like? As I said, amazing production and performances. I loved the sea palace and the floating star fish (hee). The volcano scene was wonderful, as was the spider woman. This had three women hanging from the ceiling by cloth, almost as if they were in a cocoon, and doing sort of trapeze acts. I am sure it has a name and I just don’t know it, but it was beautiful. The second half was definitely better than the first, and the ending dazzled with about fifteen women doing contortions and acrobatics, whilst spinning plates! I guess just spinning plates wasn’t exciting enough?

Plate spinning spectacular

In the end, the main problem I had was that, though it was visually stunning, it still lacked something. I was never completely taken in by it, very firmly in the audience, never lost in the moment. It lacked heart.

Still, if you do decide to go and see it, I strongly suggest getting seats in the middle, as much as you can. Had we been in our original seats we would have missed out on a lot, and even though we were moved in a little, there was still much we couldn’t see.

Can We?

I haven’t said much about the election, not because I don’t think it affects me, it does, it’s just there’s so much that has been said, and that you can say, where do you start? The beginning is always a good place, right?

I’m not an expert on American politics, not even close. Hell, I hardly know anything about British politics. Not something I’m proud of, it just doesn’t seem to stick in my head. But I do find the American system much more interesting, the fight for the nomination, the debates, the voting. It’s pretty great to watch it unfold, especially now. It would be better if I could say for certain that the guy I’m rooting for is going to win, but I learned some time ago not to count your chickens.

Back in 2000 I was living in the US. I was at the University of Maryland, in my second year. I got to see the hubbub up close. Only I wasn’t paying attention. Call me self-involved (you can, that’s fine) but I just didn’t think it was a big deal. And that’s because I didn’t think there was any possibility that George W. Bush would win. I wasn’t remotely worried about it. I figured everyone saw what I saw when they looked at him, which was pretty much a spoiled Daddy’s boy as thick as two short planks. I found him humorous, back then it was fine, laughable was ok, he wasn’t actually going to be important or anything. Actually, I can tell you exactly what I thought, since I have my journal from then. On 13th November 2000 I wrote:

I suppose I should write about what’s going on in this country with the elections…the count was too close to call so they have to re-count Florida and absent ballots. It’s a whole big who-ha that’s been going on for a week and it’s taken over TV and it’s all anyone talks about. I suppose it’s a huge thing really, cos it’s never happened before. I really want Gore to win, because Bush is just so ignorant, he’s so dumb! Why would anyone want him as their President? What kind of country am I living in here!?

Sigh. I kind of wish my younger self had paid more attention to history in the making, but it wasn’t to be. And so I went on my merry way figuring nothing much would change once Clinton left office.

Oh. How wrong can you be?

I remember what happened next. I remember being utterly confused by the whole thing. And then it was 2004, and my hopes weren’t as high, but they were still there, still clinging on. He couldn’t possibly win again, could he? Not after everything? Well, yeah, he could and he did.

And now? Well, I gotta say, the hopes that I threw away are trying to latch back on to me, stubborn little buggers.

And because I’m five years behind and only saw this today:

God, I hope so.

Vlog

Instead of bringing you my oh so interesting list of what not to do in an interview (I have been interviewing people the last two days. Two very long days) I am giving you my first vlog as it’s Vlog Day over on 20 Something Bloggers and I wanted to play. I only realised they were doing it this morning though, so it’s not especially well thought out. Sorry about that. Also, it’s done with my digital camera so is a crappy picture and I sound like I have a lisp. Try not to hold it against me, it’s the thought that counts, right?

Oh, this is supposed to be a vlog…

Vlog from Carrie on Vimeo.

OK, I can’t for the life of me get this video to embed, and youtube wouldn’t even upload and I want to go to bed, so hopefully clicking a link won’t kill anyone, and if some kind soul would like to walk me through the whole embedding thing (speak as if you’re talking to a monkey or something), I’d appreciate it.

Nerd Alert

I have been neglecting my geek duties by not keeping up with the news on the latest Star Trek film. I’ve avoided a lot of it because it worries me, on about the same level as Terminator 4 worries me, but that didn’t stop me posting that trailer and trying to ignore goosebumps when I heard the music. Still, the Trek universe is held dear to my heart, and I’m not totally sure there’s any need to ‘reimagine’ the original series, but it’s J.J. Abrams and that’s in the plus column.

Anyway, I know little about the plot, other than old Spock meets himself as a youngster, and there’s a Romulan villain (Eric Bana, possibly another plus), but they’ve released pics and so here they are:

Simon Pegg as Scotty- another plus? Karl Urban also looks pretty good as Bones. I have issues with Kirk. He’s way too pretty, and Chekhov seems to be about 12.

This is the main thing that has worried me since they announced his presence in the cast. Zachary Quinto. I hate him on Heroes. I don’t think he can act. He has no range of emotion other than EVIL EVIL! all the time. This may help him in being Spock, since Vulcans don’t do emotion, but this picture here isn’t selling it to me. He’s doing his ‘angry’ face (which is basically his only face). Stop it Quinto, stop it at once!

Eric Bana being Romulan.

Pretty boy Kirk climbs out of the ice.

The crew on the bridge of the Enterprise. Kirk does not look like he belongs in that chair, sorry to say. You can see I’m really keeping an open mind here.

There’s more info here

My Chalupa

One of the books on this season’s list is by some dude named Chalupa. And it’s driving me crazy because every time I have to do something concerning this book I hear this:

This was on the TV back when I lived in the US. Why do such things stay in my head?

God damn Taco Bell!

Won’t Get Fooled Again

I’m sure pretty much everyone has heard about Christian Bale’s brush with the law. I’m not going to offer any insights or opinions on what I think went down, whether he’s a mom beater or if ‘they totally deserved it’ as some sites might have you believe. Nope, I’m just going to bring you the best of many funnies that are doing the rounds:

I had to stop watching CSI: Miami a couple of seasons back. I couldn’t take Horatio Caine any longer. All those one liners at the beginning of the episode (which some delightful soul has edited into one long nightmare of a youtube video if you feel the need to look that up. I had to stop it after a minute before my brain exploded), the long brooding looks out into the ocean, the sunglasses shots, the puns…oh god, make it stop!

I can only handle him in cartoon form these days.

Guest Blog

Hello, I’m The Renaissance Man. I’m going to be guest posting for Teabelly today as part of the 20SB Big Blog Swap.

I learned how to dance Salsa by accident. I really didn’t mean to. To be honest, I blame my mother.

Immediately after I enlisted in the Nation Guard, I got shipped down to Fort Benning, Georgia. For those of you who have never been there, keep it that way. It’s hot, humid, smelly, dirty, and I suspect that it’s actually one giant interconnected ant colony after the amount of times I got bit. During that three month span, I had almost no contact with the outside world. Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for the rest of you, the rest of the world doesn’t simply go away when I’m not there. That meant that there were things that had to be done. Things that I couldn’t do myself. Thankfully, I have a loving family, more than happy to help me get what needs to be done taken care of.

One of those things was registering for my classes the next term. I left them my pin number, the classes I needed, and priority electives. All the things they’d need to register me for another term of schoolwork. When I returned home, I had to ensure all my classes were in order.

Communications… Good.
Writing… nice.
Statistics… not fun, but needed.
Autocad… I need that.
LA Style Salsa… Bwah?

Needless to say, I was baffled. Ask I asked what was going on, and my lovely, manipulativee mother, somehow convinced me to give it a try. I have no idea how that happened, I suspect some sort of Jedi Mind Trick.

Once I got on campus, I had every intention of half assing my way through the class, S/Uing it, and moving on with my life. I showed up the first day, and the class was being taught by a small fifty year Jewish man, who insisted on dancing with all his students, male and female. He was a great instructor, but I just wasn’t ready for that kind of approach yet. However, there was this girl…

She was possessed of average height, about 5’6″, and soft spoken. Yet she wasn’t intimidated by my height. She wore her red hair in a short cut, that curled in at the base of her neck, and framed her smile perfectly. She was well toned, a graceful dancer, and had smartly dressed to boot… ahem, moving on now.

I stuck it out for this girl. As I kept coming back, and learning more and more, I found the dance more interesting. I particularly found the week he dedicated to Casino to be interesting. But all good things must come to an end, and so did our class. So I took the next one in the series, and learned more.

As soon as I turned 21, I hightailed it over to Platinum for Latin X Night. There I was introduced to the Rumbanas, and was introduced to the world of Cuban Salsa… but that’s a story for another time.