- formerly AtypicalBrain.com, a randomly updated collection of strange musings and observations from a social media nerd living in New York City.
8/30/2007
Daughtry!!!
It was held at the Colorado State Fair in the events center and the festivities began at the early hour of eight pm. It was a massive setup. Not as big, I'm sure, as others, but by far the biggest I've ever been to. I've no idea how many people were actually there, but it was enough to fill the place up almost completely. It was an awesome crowd that sat there through an hour and a half of opening artist Day of Fire. I was no big fan, but their songs weren't bad. After the screaming headbanger music and a surprise appearance by Chris Daughtry, the lights came up and it was a rough half hour 'til the lights came back down and everybody pulled out their cell phones to catch the first appearances. The lights flared on revealing Daughtry's stage set with it's industrial back alley look, and the group walked on to a massive roar that rose from the crowd below. A little warm up, a little "we love you Colorado" and we settled into the concert that slowly built up this amazing energy. It was contagious. We knew the minute the drummer tore off his t-shirt, the music reached a frenzied crescendo, and Chris Daughtry pulled open his shirt that the party had truly begun!
From that point on it was one song after another of Daughtry's amazing talent and Chris' amazing voice. He is so much better in concert than any of his songs played in any car or on any stereo could ever let on. His voice has a real, masculine power that sucks you in and then blows you away on a wind of energy that is like flying out of yourself! The band members that back him up through it all have talent that is coveted and envied greatly as far as I am concerned. They complement his style and ability excellently. Chris' stage presence is a winning piece, too. He walks the stage reaching for his fans hands, not missing a beat or step in the whole song, and manages to put real emotion into his performance that makes you want to really feel what he feels. It was an amazing experience I can't wait to repeat!
There were, of course photos taken and video snapped, so I'll post all of that to the blog when I get it (Joanna has it). Check out all the stuff I've linked to below for Daughtry. It's so worth it. If you haven't heard these guys... SHAME!!
Daughtry Home
Daughtry Music Video- "It's Not Over"
Daughtry Playlist (opens new window)
8/29/2007
Template Poltergeists
There will be other changes soon. Enough that I really don't want to go into detail and will simply let you all know when we've hit the stable state. It may be a while...
8/28/2007
Summer's End, New ReStartings
During lunch, I put an idea out to our girls about taking our group Barnes and Noble official, and they loved it. Easy. If you missed my last post, you can check out the pre proposal ideas I had here. In discussing plans and ideas for our proposal, we came out with the following ideas: we'd meet every week on Monday at 7pm; it would be open to everyone, men and women; we would discuss a minimum of one book per month with a project available and encouraged for everyone to mess with; we'd have reserved seating and full facility use as well as a spot on the events board and in the newsletter and website; and, as facilitator, I can give everyone a lot more access to books that they need, info on the group, a contact base in case of a problem, and the opportunity to pull in both local authors and touring ones as well. Can I just say "Yes!" I'm very excited. And that's putting it mildly. For me.
Besides all that craziness going on with the group, I have a few new things to cheer about myself. I went to my local knitting store, positioned, conveniently, down the street from my apartment last Saturday with some friends, and won a raffle! The only guy in the store won a knitting raffle. How awesome is that? What did I win, you ask? Three balls of alpaca/merino blend yarn in a harvesty orange color and the book The Knitting Goddess by Deborah Bergman! It's totally synchronistic as I had just ordered the book from Barnes. Ah, karma.
With that yarn I have started a fall scarf that is thick and chunky and is hordes of fun to knit up. This on top of my new hat project from a design given to me by Molly. It's done on my first set of circular needles and the yarn is a nylon/wool blend. Soft, but a bitch to knit with. It keeps splicing on me. Grrrrr. It'll be cozy when it's done. I don't remember if I tallied my scarf to finished or not, but the pink lovely is done. I hope to add a fringe to it, since four-year-olds love fringe. When that's done, I'll have a pic up for ya all.
I've got a couple other projects in the back of my head on a to-do shelf. They are a lovely halter from the Hollywood Knits book done in a black pima cotton yarn for my bff Ashley, and the tank I have a picture of below done in grey and black. My grey will be a shade darker, but basically the same. I say this shirt on Adam & Eve's website and said "I can knit that." So, I'm gonna.
Damn computer is telling me to get off. I swear, I could spend eight ours a day on this thing and not bat an eye. Damn regulators. *string of curses*
8/27/2007
Rufus Wainright Made Me Knit
Our Monday night knitting group get togethers have been awesome thus far and have sparked interest from other Barnes & Noble customers. I've had four requests just this last week for info or about whether or not we teach and so on. Tonight I'm going to put an idea to the group for decision and polling. I think it'd be a smart move to make our group a sanctioned Barnes & Noble Event with all the perks and benefits. I hesitate to make this decision on my own only because I feel there are a couple of cons. One is that we kind of lose our anonymity and become public, which means anyone will be able to join. Now, while I'm not saying that we are a picky, bitchy group that chooses who and who not to let into our knitting "tangle," I think being that open may be a bit of a problem for some people. And so, a discussion. Two on the cons list is the censored approach we will have to take with new members since B&N will shut us down as an Event if we aren't "family friendly." I think this will be an easy one for everyone, but it does take some of the fun out of the bitch time we all love. We'll see. I've done up the proposal for B&N and will be handing out for vote tonight. For a looksee at my store and the hangout for our group, check this out.
One big change I would love to make is the ability to play our own music for our knitting group. With this option, as unattainable as it really is, we could share music that we like to knit and listen to during our groups. My current favorite is the handsome Rufus Wainright and his newest album Release the Stars. He is an out and fabulous performer/song writer/musician with a very unique style reminiscent of a seventies singer all with a modern mix of orchestral and rock music to back him up. As the hip Aussies say, "So flash!" I've left you all some links to his site and a popup playlist below. Listen to the boy's music. It's scandalous, heartfelt, and passionate. You will fall in love, guaranteed!
Click and Play!
A Game For You!
My adopted Mom tagged me. She runs the ever colorful and knitty Emma's Daughter Designs Blog with the newly added Etsy shop. If I tagged you, make sure to copy the game from my blog and post it on yours. Then tell me 'cus I suck at checking up on stuff like that.
The game is SCATTERGORIES … and it’s harder than it looks! Here are the rules:
* Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the questions.
* They MUST be real places, names, things … NOTHING made up!
* If you can’t think of anything, skip it.
* You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question.
* If your name happens to start with the same letter as mine, sorry, but you can’t use my answers!
1. Famous Singer/Band: Smashing Pumpkins
2. Four letter word: Shit! One of my favorites, especially when screwing up a drink at work.
3. Street: Sycamore St.
4. Color: Scarlet
5. Gifts/Presents: Spa and Skin Care Products- Seriously, any kind!
6. Vehicle: Scion xD
7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: Shot Glass
8. Boy Name: Sasha
9. Girl Name: Sharpe (makes me giggle... kinda)
10. Movie Title: Stardust!
11. Drink: Saki
12. Occupation: Ski Instructor
13. Celebrity: Siefried FischBacher from Siegfried & Roy
14. Magazine: Style Watch
15. U.S. City: San Francisco
16. Pro Sports Teams: San Jose Sharks (hockey team)
17. Fruit: Silverberry
18. Reason for Being Late for Work: Shower went a bit long.
19. Something You Throw Away: Starbuck's cups
20. Things You Shout: Shweet!
21. Cartoon Character: Spongebob Squarepants
Seeing as I don't know a lot of your email addresses (shocking), I'm gonna pawn it off on ya'll to just post it and then link back to me so I can read whatcha put. Fun fun!
8/22/2007
Another Mondays@7 Meet
8/20/2007
New Religious Artifact and MenWhoKnit.com
In case you are having issues reading the sacred text, I have rewritten it for you, unabridged, below.
1. You shall have no other Blogs but me.
2. You shall migrate to the New Blogger for it is a land of milk and honey.
3. You shall not misuse the name of Google your God.
4. You shall upgrade to the new template to seek salvation for your blog.
5. You shall submit your blog to the search engines and ping them after every post.
6. You shall not delete a blog lest it be taken over by spammers.
7. You shall not copy-paste old blogger templates into the New Blogger layouts.
8. You must not steal content even though you may be "inspired" by it.
9. You must back up your template BEFORE and AFTER any changes to the template.
10. You must not be envious of your neighbor's blogs or his template.
Just a little something I found while browsing other blog help sites. Worth a good laugh, I do believe. I also spent all day on MenWhoKnit.com and even got my first blog entry off. I was initially kind of worried I'd be a lot out of the loop and maybe just chatting around with a bunch of odd people with no lives, like me, but all fears were banished when I got on and read a few of the newcomer's entries and read through some of the project ideas that these guys had going. So refreshing and totally inspiring! It's actually a "cool" community made up of some pretty diverse and interesting people. 'Twas most invigorating. I can't wait to jump on and start discussing new ideas to start on with these guys.
MenWhoKnit.com was the only major "all-guys" knitting community I found while online searching through Google. Maybe I just didn't spend enough time looking (I would think a good hour would be long enough), but there it sat, the sole guys-run, guys-oriented knitting community for, wait for it... guys! Guys, check it out, join it! Girls... sorry, I'm afraid you'll just have to check it out.
Also discovered on (ta-da) MenWhoKnit.com was this fantastic read about the connection between knitting and religion. Initially I thought I'd end up a little steamed (I'm so bad at being open minded sometimes) just because I assumed it'd be a little preachy, but I was rewarded for my adventurousness. YugiDean makes some very insightful points.
8/18/2007
Scary Knitting!
8/14/2007
New Knitters
The Last Knit
Bit long, but I couldn't help it! Pray I never get that bad!
Next week- scary knitting!
8/08/2007
Current Projects and Intended Projects
This is my table at home with the only two projects I have going right now all over it. That's also my stack of books over which I pour endlessly, soaking up all the cool designs and patterns I can't wait to try my hands on! On top is the Knitter's Handbook and it is my most recent and favorite addition to the pile. It's got everything I need know on stitches and the like and has already helped me figure out where I have screwed up on a few things.
That pink "thing" siting in front is the beginnings of a scarf (for whom, I'm a bit torn over) that has actually gotten quite a bit more done to it since this picture was taken. It's done in a mistake rib and alternates between two skeins of multicolored pink hued yarn. I've spent about four hours on it by now and figure it'll take another six or seven if I'm diligent and don't screw it up. The nice thing about this multicolored yarn is that I can screw up and even I don't notice until I start really looking for it. Sweeeeeeet! The yarn I'm using is Dark Horse Yarns' Fantasy, 50% nylon/ 50% acrylic blend. It feels incredible, so soft and light. I'm almost jealous of whoever ends up with this.
And in a pile behind it all is the Harry Potter scarf I started in July. It's so close to being done it's ridiculous that I don't just finish it! Soon, and then I shall photograph it in all it's glory!
As for future plans, I have a whole lineup of stuff I want to do for Christmas, most of it easy and fun, and also some socks, a black and grey striped scarf/hat/gloves combo for me, and something orange for Halloween, for me too, of course. Lol.
I love being able to make stuff specifically for me!
Tuesday Night Success
We all seemed to really have a blast and most of us seemed to want to do it again. So we've set the date for next Monday, August 13th. Same place, and again at seven pm. Hopefully we get another great turn out, though I am confident we'll have a roarin' good time whether it's two of us or as many as twenty.
8/06/2007
Creation- Knitting the World
On a side note- I love Etsy! So many crazy individuals with their own flair and brilliant knicknacks.
Back on topic. Here is the story as told by Willa. The original post I found can be seen here.
Enjoy! And thanks, Willa!
Knitting the World
First Daughter was in a foul mood. She and her sisters had drawn straws, and she had gotten the short one. Consequently, she had been given the task of knitting the earth, and it was going very slowly. The stitches would not come easily; she seemed to knit and knit and knit, and never get anywhere. Miles of stitches. And the brown and green yarns were boring—yard after yard of greens and browns, endlessly spooling from the needles. She yawned. Why couldn't she have gotten to knit the sky, or the sea?
Second Daughter was knitting the sky. Stitches of blue silk flew from her needles, punctuated with fluffy tufts of cloud and the occasional jeweled bird. She laughed to herself as she duplicate-stitched a flock of geese into the fabric, creating tiny v-shapes with silvery gray thread on top of the blue sky.
Third Daughter was knitting the sea in pools of emerald and sapphire, spumes of foam rising from her clicking needles.
The Mother walked among them, fingering the cloth, occasionally correcting a stitch, pulling it straight, and stroking her daughters' smooth heads as they bent over their work. Second Daughter smiled into the sky, pulling a length of white wool from her workbasket and knitting it together with the sky blue silk to make a cloud. With sudden inspiration she selected a shiny silver yarn from her workbasket and began fashioning the lining for the cloud.
Third Daughter looked up as the mother approached, and leaned her head into her mother's hip. The Mother smiled down on her and fingered the fabric that was rolling off her needles. Third Daughter was working a cable into the fabric, creating an island in the center of a gleaming silver sea. Miles and miles of sea pooled around her, green and blue and silver; she looked up and, seeing Second Daughter knitting the sun into the sky with golden wool, she chose a lighter shade of gold and began to knit the sun's reflection into her sea.
First Daughter threw down her needles. "Why do I always get the boring jobs?" she asked. "Second Daughter and Third Daughter get the pretty blue and silver silks, and I get the boring, lumpy green and brown wool. It isn't fair!" The Mother walked toward her. "Why do you complain so?" she asked. "Every job is worthwhile. The sea is beautiful, and the sky is beautiful, but the earth is beautiful, too."
The Mother picked up the bolt of fabric that was First Daughter's knitting. The knitting was lumpy and bumpy, having been knit of roughly spun wool on heavy needles, so unlike the smooth silk of the sky and the sea. First Daughter tried, but she couldn't help comparing her knitting to her sisters'. "Can you fix it for me?" she asked her mother. "Will you?"
"It was your job to knit the earth, Daughter," the Mother said. "You have to do the job that is given to you, no one can do it for you."
"Then I quit!" said First Daughter, and flung her knitting down and flounced away. Without a hand to smooth it, the knitting lay where it fell, in lumps and bumps and piles, forming furrows and hills and valleys. And that is how the mountains were formed.
~ Willa Cline, February 23, 2006
At Last- The Apartment
Enjoy. It's a wonderful little apartment in downtown Littleton. It was quite the steal. I'm looking forward to Halloween and Christmas when the town's main street (my street) will be lit up and decorated with thousands of lights or crawling with little gouls craving some candy.
8/02/2007
Knitting Contest
Give me a name!!!
This contest is being hosted by Bev over at Emma's Daughter Designs and the winner will be provided with a skein of J. Knits sock yarn. Use the email link at the bottom of this post or send an email at mousebrat2006@gmail.com with "Knitting Contest Entry" in the subject line. One entry per person, please. The deadline for submitting your entries will be Saturday, August 18th. Any comments or questions, you know where to find me. Hint- use the email link. lol Good luck, all.
Send me an email here.
8/01/2007
Tell Me What You Think
Updates and a New Web Address
These are just to get the feel of my blog's template and will probably change again. I bought a book called The Rational Guide To Google Blogger by Wei-Meng Lee and it's gotten me on my way to having the whole lineup. I'm working on Atom syndication, site counter and statistics, and template adjustments with html editing.
I'm also toying with the idea of including AdSense. I'm not sure I like the idea of ads on my blog yet, so for now it's no.
I have also changed my web address for the blog. It is now http://www.ispaceofstrange.blogspot.com/. Any links to my blog that you may have added in the past will be null and void. Sorry!! I promise not to change it anytime soon.
Whew, almost done. I am going to put up a permanent "Tell Us What You Think" entry where you can leave a comment on what you like or think I should change or topics you'd like to hear more about. I may have that up today, maybe not.
That's it for now, guys. 'Til next post, Strange out.
The Art of Emma's Daughter Designs
Emma's Daughter Designs is a well established, Wyoming-based company specializing in knitting design and patterns and set in the wind-swept plains of, surprise, Wyoming. It's owner, founder, top designer, and general head honcho is none other than the lovely Bev Warner, or, as I like to call her, my adopted mom. Mad props to her! And yes, I am buttering up said fabulous designer, simply because, as my adopted mom and a great artist, she is fully entitled to it! She has also been one of my biggest supporters and helped me in so many ways I can't count. Truly a great mom! This paragraph has the potential to be much longer, but on to company and its products.
The name is a tribute to Bev's mother and carries with it all the love you would expect from a company built around such devotion. A portion of the proceeds pulled in by EDD go to support a charity (and I apologize for the lack of accurate info) supporting women with, I believe, breast cancer*. There is some serious blood, sweat, and tears that have gone into the whole process of owning this company, though I can definitely say that the end results are fully enjoyable and rewarding.