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Summerland Rainier NP.

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happy black history month y’all!

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romo (relief of missing out)

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January 31, 2025

Michaels gave me a five dollar coupon and because most of their yarn is nasty plastic and there was no minimum spending requirement I caved and bought a pair of knitting needles. I'd planned to kind of just let them sit until I got the itch for them. Of course, me being me, I got the itch immediately and learned continental style knitting this evening lol. Just the garter/knit stitch so far with some scrap yarn, but I shall learn the purl tomorrow. Also planning to pick up some good yarn to start on one of the crochet patterns I'd bought a bit ago. That's my focus right now: making sure those patterns don't go to waste. Granted, I've been slowly collecting knitting patterns of interest on my pinterest, so I'll have a starting point for those.

In two weeks I've started learning two new fiber arts skills, potentially because I've felt such a high level of background stress. The inauguration, classes starting, funding scares, issues with classes, federal nonsense... Fun times.

Anyway knitting is super fun!!! Casting on took forever to get right but my tension (for the garter stitch, at least) is solid. My wrists and fingers kind of hurt but I think I just need to do some stretching. Look at me, triple threat: sewing, crochet (regular and tunisian), knitting. It's been a while since I've embroidered and I never really took the time to get good at it (couldn't even get satin stitches right), so I won't include that amongst my skillset, but I might try some embroidery embellishments for a few of my Bico pieces.

I'm going to be such a fantastic old lady.

Today I'm thankful that someone from the stem dinner group thing suggested last semester that I try continental style as a crocheter. I'd attempted knitting before but couldn't get it. Glad I didn't end up buying a class to learn after all. Should've known I was too crafty for that. I feel like a whole new world of garment construction has opened up to me, especially for vintagey looks. aaa!!

I feel a little reluctant to go back to primarily crocheting garments unless they're in a style I can't reasonably replicate with knitting (like the 3D rose granny square cardigan) since it uses up so much more yarn in comparison. Glad I have the skill though of course.

Also smaller thanks to the lady from whom I bought peacock-colored yarn last year who urged me to learn knitting. I still have the yarn and I shall use it in something spectacular. Hopefully I see her at another market sometime. Another small thanks to the Knitting Cult Lady (whose book is close to the top of my to-read list) whose tiktoks have bewitched me for months. She seems so cool.

[edit, next morning: what's funny to me is that most of my friends had cool date nights planned last night. not me. learned to knit.]

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Full Moon Over Lake Arcadia, 2023 - Jef Bourgeau

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January 30, 2024

Well, despite all the world suckyness (some of which might be impacting me and my graduate education yay), at least I've confirmed that my dnd-friend is down for Bico 2026 let's gooooooo

I went through a pitchdeck with her and we're SO locked in. I mean we need to come up with a timeline and start buying things and making things and figure out our travel/lodging arrangements (and learning french) but at the very least I know she's down which was a huge hurdle for cost, safety, and fun reasons. Like, yeah, I'd be willing to go alone. But it'll be infinitely more fun and slightly less expensive and significantly safer going with someone who is as enthusiastic about this as I am. While building my slide deck I was watching a ton of LARP videos to get screenshots and it seems like so much fun, I literally can't wait.

Today I'm thankful to have a friend like my dnd-friend. Both of us were first introduced to LARP separately through television depictions that were clearly meant to poke fun at the nerdy adults who dress up to whack each other with foam swords in the park, and it is so funny to me that we both went "yes that is exactly what I want to do with my time" and somehow managed to find each other and hold on to that secret desire. Eighteen months to plan.

I don't feel like I know the people in my current dnd group well enough to want to actually plan a trip with them, but if we're still playing in a few months the I may let it "slip" that I'm planning to do Bico next year. If any of them happen to also be there, it could be pretty dope. I just have no plans or desire to try to facilitate that lol.

I’ve recently realized that there’s something about cool-headed people that unnerves me to the point of completely unreasonable annoyance.  People who aren’t highly expressive give me the heebie-jeebies and for some reason I just really don’t enjoy being around that kind of person.  While I would certainly classify myself as an introvert, I’m definitely also pretty high-energy and I largely enjoy being around people who, well, match my freak, in a way.  Even as I try to keep my cards close to my chest in most interactions, I can’t help but be excited about the fact that I have cards in the first place, if that makes sense?  At least, that’s how I see myself.  Not that I’m hyperactive, just expressive.

…Maybe what I actually find frustrating about cool-headed people is that they appear to have achieved a serenity that I genuinely desire for myself.  I have wanted to be chill in some capacity pretty much all my life, but I cannot help that I am fairly high-strung.  Even while lying down, tension creeps into my shoulders and legs to the point where I have to consciously relax.  So maybe I’m just envious.

My Beara Beara bag came in and I'm in love. It's adorable, it suits my vibe, and I could not be happier. I think the black was a good choice; down the line I'll get some other dark brown purse, perhaps after I get some dark brown shoes. Very pleased with my accessory choices recently.

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sorry for romanticising the mundane. i have little else

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Basque Country, Spain by hectorprada83

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a good way to inspire yourself to do more is to see yourself as the wacky sitcom B plot character in your friends lives, "wouldnt it be funny to tell the friends in my phone about it." has gotten me to do anything from going to a festival (excelent) to wild camping (it went badly) (coastguard called) to trying to get the train to stonehenge (stonehenge costs money so i ended up just getting lunch in sailsbury, it was okay.) i bought a bicycle today and 20% of my reasoning was "itd be funny to surprise my roommate by coming home with a whole bike." . life is for living. and baby i live for the bit.

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literally what the fuck do you mean its still january. how is that remotely possible. its been six months minimum

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“Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximising scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.”

– Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

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Somewhere in Seabeck

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Colorado’s wildflower season

colorado.wanderer

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January 27, 2025

I want to understand.  I want to understand why the processes and pipelines I’m using work the way they do, the types of models under the hood, the way that certain assumptions are made.  I want to get good at bio-statistical computation, even if I'm not necessarily building tools myself.  I want to wrestle through mathematics to reach that proficiency.  I want to be able to hold my own in those kinds of conversations with those kinds of academics.  That is what I want to get out of a computing course.  And I wonder if I judged the one at my uni too harshly by its cover alone.  Because I’m kind of feeling it now, after this first class.  I dunno.  I’ll hold on to it in my schedule for a bit longer; next week I’ll take both this one and the one I have to cross-register for.  See how I’m feeling.  I wonder if I could audit the course at my uni.  I don’t need the credits, exactly.  Just the skills.  That may not go over well with the prof in such a small class.  I dunno.

I suppose I could take the syllabus and teach myself.  Am I motivated enough for that? I'd like to think so..

The other factor to consider is the whole spring break thing–if I do the cross-reg class, I’ll miss out on a true spring break.  

I’ll see how I feel at the end of next week (outside of just tired from all the running around).  I suppose it’d not be worthwhile to do both. There are pros and cons to each that kind of balance out for me. I may need to present a list of them to my advisor with a preliminary decision. I'll need to take a close look at the syllabi and perhaps go to office hours.

What a pickle I’m in.

Honestly, if I had it my way, I’d axe the popgen course my advisor wants me to take this semester and stick with the two others.  They are far and away more suited to my interests. But it will likely be useful to build connections with faculty and to diversify the types of knowledge bases I can pull from, I guess. And two computation-heavy courses would likely be a lot. Especially during my quals semester.

First day went fine, I suppose. Accidentally took a nap. Managed to read a paper (fell asleep while reading its rebuttals). Need to go to bed earlier. So, uh, goodnight.

Today I'm thankful for... hm. Uh. Hmm. Lol I'm thankful I didn't buy nvidia stock last year like I'd planned to do. I don't think this is a permanent tank but it sure looks bad. Maybe I should buy tomorrow. Frankly I should've bought in 2022 but alas.