Ramblings of a crafty geek

Resurection of a blog

2010-11-01T08:11:00.002-05:00

So I haven't posted here since 2008.

My life is entirely different now, and I'm re-evaluating what to do with this blog. It's NaBloPoMo or whatever it's called - the Blogging equivalent to NaNoWriMo - so perhaps I'll do that again.

I'll make that decision by this evening :D

I may create a new blog :)

I can has desktop eye candy

2008-12-08T21:14:00.004-06:00

So the monitor I'd been using for my desktop at home decided that it was time to start giving me problems...waking up after sleeping. With all the amazing Black Friday deals buzzing around, we decided to take advantage of them, coupled with some computer repairs needed on both 'Sea and Songwind's computers, we decided it was well past time for the adults of the house to get "family" Christmas presents, and thus a budget was decided upon for each computer, and voila, early Christmas present to each of us.

For 'Sea and songwind each, they have new processors and motherboards. 'Sea has joined the world of the multi-cored. Songwind has joined the world of the quad cored (lucky ;) ). I've had a dual cored computer for a while now, but it's an earlier generation - one that will not support the snazzy ePCI video card that 'Sea now sports :D.

For myself, I have a new monitor and new webcam (on its way). I have now fully joined the digital age of video devices. I inherited songwind's old video card, which only has dvi ports! However, my monitor only has hdmi ports - so we went looking around the house for an hdmi to dvi cables - of which we have one...the one that connects the DVD player to the TV *laugh*. The only person in the house who watches much in the way of DVD's is Spud - but we figured he would be fine for the couple of days it will take for Amazon to deliver the cable that will cost me 8.99 as opposed to the cable that Target, Best Buy, or Radio Shack will charge me 26.95! Besides between all of the computers and various and sundry other devices that sport DVD players, we would be able to find something for him to watch a dvd on if he got desperate.

So I figured it was time to join the ranks of the swank linux desktop. I've installed avant-window-navigator to enable a pretty task bar. My top panel no longer auto-expands...and on my laptop which is slightly more "buff" than my desktop, I've got more visual effect which enable shaders on the top panel.

Then I went looking for a new desktop background. My search started with a generic google search which found the violin image and this article *laugh* Oh my goodness! I have two favorites:

this violin image

The Elemental

and of course Zen Penguin (which even though it isn't a widescreen image, works well when stretched into widescreen - penguin just looks like a buddha)

Screenshot of my laptop

In and amongst all of the various sites, here are two collections that stood out:

animated robots - I had to link this one. This site reminds me of my mother, who seems to be attracted to cg robots :)

Widescreen wallpapers Now that both of my home monitors are widescreen, I am now avidly interested in wallpapers that work for widescreens :)

Promoting a high school friend's site

2008-11-20T20:02:00.002-06:00

So I have no idea if anyone reads this given how rarely I post here, but...

If you do, you're in for a treat. The site I'm about to share is the site of a friend of mine from high school. We were in band together, and I must say he's done well for himself since then!

Hawkeye's Sketchblog

So please, sit back, scroll through and enjoy a feast for the eyes.

Help me Obiwan

2008-08-17T10:50:00.003-05:00

Yay! Our gaming group is playing again, and we're creating new characters.

But I SUCK at creating character names.

We're playing d20 Modern, and the game is set in Minneapolis. Our characters work for a Pinkerton's like firm.

My character used to be a techie entrepreneur that turned to forensics when the dot com bubble burst. She's a Smart Hero (16s in Int, Wis, and Dex)...Oh yeah, and she likes demolitions...that's where she *learned* to be nimble and tumble. ;)

Ubuntu 8.04...check

2008-04-29T22:37:00.001-05:00

Both my laptop and my desktop are updated to Ubuntu 8.04.

I'm liking this whole Firefox 3 concept.

If I were to share one of the things that I like most about Ubuntu over Red Hat (and its variants) is that Ubuntu gets updated frequently, on a predictable schedule, the repositories are maintained, and I can look forward to incorporating the latest and greatest software (most of the time). A few years ago there were issues with ubuntu repositories, but I'm not having as many issues with them now as I did then...But with the RH yum channels, for instance, I'm still stuck with gimp 2.2, whereas I've been using 2.4 on Windows and Ubuntu for almost a year. I *really* don't want to go back to 2.2 - there were significant enough positive modifications made in 2.4 that I'll do whatever I can to avoid using 2.2.

New type of geekery about to be posted here: baking and cooking!

2008-04-12T22:57:00.001-05:00

Why baking and cooking? Well - I love cooking and baking, but I first really made my home in the kitchen via baking bread - and that's what some of my friends remember me best for. I don't expect that all of my talk is going to be about baking, though - I do forsee discussion about cooking in general.

Am I a trained cook/baker? No. I learned everything that I shall share in these pixels by trial and error, by reading, by learning from my stepmother and ex-mother-in-law, and by learning from friends. I'm not afraid to try something in the kitchen. Sometimes this is a good thing - sometimes...well...not so good. But in general it's fun, and the results are even better :).

Over the years I've had to face a number of culinary challenges. I'm allergic to fungi and all manners of aquatic food (fresh and saltwater, fish and shellfish). My housemate has issues with onions. My housemate's daughter is allergic to bananas. For a while I had to learn gluten free cooking because it looked like I might have either celiac disease or a wheat intolerance (I don't!). My ex-mother-in-law is vegetarian. A number of our friends face any number of food aversions or allergies, and when we throw parties, we want to make sure that they have home cooked food they can truly enjoy - not just eat. What has resulted is the knowledge and ability to be flexible as needed - frustrating at times - challenging at others - fun at others!

Testing out a new IM client

2008-04-01T22:46:00.002-05:00

Once upon a time there was a Yahoo client for Linux called gyache. It was...well...ugly was a good word for it. It didn't support web cam all that well, and it wasn't all that great.

I was cleaning up my home directory today on my laptop getting ready to upgrade to the next version of Ubuntu (Xubuntu on my laptop) soon when I ran across it again. Huh. So I went online to see if there are any updates. The official website hasn't had any activity since 2006.

But wait a second...

There's a Sourceforge project that was updated less than 6 months ago. Hrm.

So I installed it this evening, and I'm looking through it now. It looks pretty. I haven't connected my webcam at the moment so I haven't seen how well that works.

How to tell one is a crafting geek?

2008-03-31T19:33:00.001-05:00

Another doily,
originally uploaded by craftingdragon.

That one has to remind oneself not to play on her online crafting project management account during the day.

I was a good Code Monkey. I did not succumb to the lures to Ravelry. Ah...but the temptation...I have to be honest and admit it was there.

I'm currently digging through old pictures and looking for pictures of old projects to put up on my crafting flickr account so that they may then be brought into my Ravelry account (gods I love that Flickr/Ravelry interface! Mah-velous, I tell you! It's so easy! Pick a project, edit photos, pick a set or a tag, search, drag and drop - all in your browser. I love modern web applications development, I tell you!)

Spring doily edge closeup

2008-03-29T21:14:00.004-05:00

Spring doily edge closeup,
originally uploaded by craftingdragon.

For your viewing pleasure - here is a closeup of the doily I've been working on forever! If you're a Ravelry member, I'm mnfiddledragon over there - and details on the project will be added shortly.

Works in progress, here I come!

2008-03-29T21:01:00.002-05:00

See, I had this thing, where I was going to be good and not start to learn to knit until I finished my WIPs. Yeah, well, that didn't last too long. I finally found a yarn that I think I can pick up knitting quickly with *woot* (down side is that at 6.00/skein...*sigh*...but that's ok. It's comfy to knit with.

That being said, I'm working on finishing up my Grandma's Lace Afghan, which shall find it's home with my stepmother, and then on to finishing my Spring Doily. The afghan has only been sitting around since I was pregnant with my now 4 year old - and the doily has been sitting around for the past 2 years. Yeah, I think it's time to finish these puppies.

I have other projects that either never got started, or barely got started, so I need to either repurpose the yarn or figure out if I'm going to actually do those projects, and if so do them, or if not repurpose the yarn.

I had a super sekrit project I was going to work on that was supposed to have been done by January - buuuuut...that never got started, and now I shall have to figure something else out.

Whee...but crafting hard core here I come!

G33ky distractions ahoy!

2008-01-16T22:11:00.001-06:00

Tonight has been a night where I've definitely needed fun and distractions. So I've played with Facebook some, and I've played with LJ some, and I've played with various meme's online.

The one that I laughed throughout was this one:

85% Geek

Meet Alaska Singles

And then...

This evening a friend pointed out Audacity - (which, btw, has an Ubuntu apt source to the 1.3.3 beta package). I am now happily making a ringtone of Jonathan Coulton's "Code Monkey". Why? Because I can, and because truly, I am my father's daughter when it comes to geeking and playing with music - I just haven't had the tools to do so in a *very* long time. *squee*

What does it mean that I am my father's daughter? My father owns his own business in audio-marketing. (this means he makes marketing tapes and cds). His background is in Communications, and he spent a while in Radio before I was born. What this means is that he's pretty darn good at audio recording and mixing. I, however, am not all that great at it - I just enjoy it immensely when I have the tools to do so, and much prefer the digital age to the old scissors/razors/tape method that I used when I was a child :P.

It's been a quiet week

2007-12-07T21:06:00.000-06:00

And what have I been doing? A little bit of things here and there.

Geek wise I've been leveling my Human Priest on The Scryers here and there. For those of you that play WoW...I have to say, I definitely appreciate the leveling adjustments for character levels 30-60. It's nice to get her moving again! I typically play her solo for maybe an hour-ish at a time...sometimes a little longer. So this move has *really* helped, and I've managed to get her up two levels in the past week pretty easily in a few short sessions.

Craft wise I've been working on my Grandma's Lace blanket.

Last night I had a surprise craft :) I went to take some of the children to dance, and didn't want to have to drive up and down my snowy hill as I've had a love hate relationship with my vehicle this week (mostly hate). So I stopped in to visit my housemate during her pottery class. Her teacher asked if I would like to paint an extra greenware house that she had sitting around. I said sure. It was lots of fun. This pottery class doesn't tend to do that sort of thing - so it was doubly fun!

The paints had awesome names like:

Yella 'Bout It
Wine About It
Irish Luck
Cotton Tail
Tiger Tail
Rawhide
The Blues
Moody Blue
Butter Me Up
Java Bean (yes, I used this one!)

The houses were crazy little houses - all off kilter and bent and tiny. They were so cute! Mine had ivy crawling all over it. :) I can't wait to get it back to take pictures :).

NaBloPoMo - I actually did it.

2007-11-30T22:14:00.000-06:00

A post a day - publically. For those that know me, you know how much of an accomplishment that is because you know for that as much as I *do* post, I hate to post aught but privately. For those that don't know me. Trust me ;) - it is. :)

This month has been difficult. As you can see from some of my more...anemic...posts - life's been a little insane. Costuming for a production, working full time, taking care of kids, dealing with health, life, family - and then remembering to post publically for an unknown audience?

I intend to keep posting here. I like posting about random geeky and crafty stuff. (I know most of it was about The Nutcracker this month). I also like the idea of limiting to no more than one or at most 2 if a particularly topic calls for it due to a specific update (like some of the Nutcracker pictures did). So I'll keep doing that, but I'm not sure if I'll stick to one per day in perpetuity. I've heard of another blogging challenge for the month of December. HollyDaily or something like that? Maybe next year.

For my friends that were participating in NaNoWriMo this month, regardless of where you stand in your writing endeavor, congratulations on an attempt well sought. For those of you who managed to complete 50,000 or more words, my sincerest hats off to you. Holy cow that is an amazing feat. For those of you who go on to publish your works once you've edited and polished them off, please let me know so that I may purchase a copy! For those of you who participated in other creative challenges both "official" and self-created this month - my hearty and warm congratulations.

We made it!

I love being a woman geek

2007-11-29T20:49:00.000-06:00

It's always good for double takes at the very least...and today it made a coworker's brain go splodey :)

Background: I work for a large company that happens to have an office both in the town I work in as well as in Atlanta. Where I live it's very cold. Like 6 degrees above 0 cold. In Atlanta - well...they've got the drought to deal with.

I walked into a meeting that was part conference call today with some of said coworkers from Atlanta...where they were joking that they had to chemically process their softdrinks to get every ounce of water out of them in order to get fresh water.

I joke, "Oh...sounds like Dune."

"Like June?" Queried the disembodied voice of one of my coworkers...the one with whom I'd had several lengthy conversations about various shows and movies including Buffy, Angel, BSG, Firefly, Star Trek, etc...we are of the geek.

"No," I said. "Like Dune."

"...."

"You know...Frank Herbert? Dune? Sand worms?"

"OH!!!! Dune!! Yes!"

We laughed hard for a few minutes and joked about reprocessing bodily fluids...and then he said something along the lines that it throws him when a woman talks geek...that it just blows his mind completely.

*bows*

She wore what!?

2007-11-28T21:45:00.000-06:00

My 13 year old daughter came out of her grounding this evening in order to do chores - I was a little irate this morning when I'd grounded her and wasn't entirely paying attention to what she was wearing. So this evening was the first true glimpse I had of what she was wearing.

It was a cute outfit, but it was still surprising, because the top most layer of it was a Halloween costume I had sewn for her years ago. Yes it still fits, but that's not the point. The point was that she was a) still wearing the darn thing, and b) still interested in wearing it. It's a black zipper dress that's too small for her to wear as a dress, so she wears it sort of as a jacket. It really does look cute. She says that it fits pretty well all around, but it's finally getting a little snug in the arms. (It's about time - I think she was 9 when I made it for her).

When I asked her if she was still interested in stuff that "Mom makes" she just smiled and said, "Yes, Mom" - in fact, her friends were amazed that her mother had made a piece of clothing that she could wear to school. There are days I swear she just does it for the comments *laugh*.

Troubleshooting

2007-11-27T20:38:00.001-06:00

In Anthropology we learned that stresses on one part of a system oftentimes had unexpected expressions in an entirely different unrelated area of that same system. In IT that lesson shines through regularly, and is one of the key lessons that I have taken to heart and use as a prime example of why my degree in Anthropology did not go to waste.

Today my app went down. Well...it seemed like it went down. The end user thought it did at any rate - because the end user could not get into my app. That would be one definition of "going down" in a software sense.

However, upon closer examination, the app was just fine - it was happily sitting in it's application server waiting futilely for connections that never came...and the connections that it did have were suddenly bereft of user information, tossed around in a sea of namelessness trying aimlessly to connect with nothing.

Aha. It wasn't actually the app. Information that was supposed to have been passed to the app wasn't being passed, and I wasn't doing my job of properly notifying people to this effect. So I worked on fixing notifications and in the meantime information started flowing...and things looked to be hunky dory.

Later this evening another issue cropped up - seemingly exactly the same - but then under the surface it was completely unrelated and had different symptoms.

Or did it? I took most of the same steps, but now I had more information to go on, and followed a different path to troubleshoot the issue. I found a different issue this evening. Still external to the app itself. But dependent on the type of information that the app provides.

Ah, but one could not have exactly forseen the types of issues that would have required the logging statements written today. So were they truly unhelpful messages? Or were they simply young and naive messages that have now been given a chance to blossom and mature just a little more?

Frustrations with WebSphere

2007-11-26T21:55:00.000-06:00

Every now and again I have to work with WebSphere. What's frustrating is that every time I have to use WebSphere it's invariably to do some sort of automation scripting. This is then where my head and my desk get to meet....frequently.

Lately I've been working with JACL - and that only because WebSphere's ant tasks have let me down. Nominally WAS' ant tasks are what I like to call a thin veneer over wsadmin's capabilities that are normally exposed via JACL and Jython. Last time I worked with it, however - with WAS 5.1.0 I couldn't add a WAR file because I couldn't pass in quotation marks.

So JACL it was. Since then I've been working on a crash course learning spree of JACL through the ups and downs of my other duties.

It would be lovely and great and all that. I love learning new languages, but for one thing: IBM's documentation leaves a lot to be desired.

Back to my old projects....

2007-11-25T22:52:00.000-06:00

Yay! I'm back to working on my crochet project that I started years ago. I picked it up again just before starting on Nutcracker stuff, but of course had to put it down for this past month. It feels nice to crochet again.

I've been flying through it this evening, putting together another 4 or 5 blocks so far in the past 2 hours. Considering I've been not working 100% in those two hours, it's not bad...and especially not bad since this is the most crocheting I've done in a single sitting in the past 4.5 years.

It's like breathing fresh air again. :)

woot

2007-11-24T22:06:00.000-06:00

It was in a word amazing and spectacular.

And so completely worth it...

And now back to crochet and knitting ;)

(of course now I have all these other ideas!)

I see the light at the end of the tunnel...

2007-11-23T22:13:00.001-06:00

And it doesn't look like it's an on coming train.

The tutu has to be over to the studio first thing in the morning. I'm about 30% done with what I have to do on the bodice, and about 80% done with what I have to do on the overlay, so it's going to be a long night. But worth it, I think.

Then I'll run it over to the studio first thing, see if the AD wants anything more added to it before the show, or if it's good. I'm hoping that it's good because I have beads and crystals added in such a way that they are tastefully arranged and tacked down well, and aren't so much as to overburden the tutu.

Pictures will most definitely be posted as soon as it's all done :)

Happy Gobble Gobble Day Everyone!

2007-11-22T23:31:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone that celebrates today is eating well for whatever that means to you.

This and that...

2007-11-21T22:06:00.001-06:00

I promise there will be topics other than my progress on Nutcracker costumes. It's just that time of year, *laugh*.

The trim beading is done, and I'm almost done tacking down the trim and can start beading the overlay and the bodice. *woot* I can't wait. I'm ready to enjoy other things...like learning to knit, or finishing up the blanket I started crocheting several years ago...or...working on that super secret project I'd started but stalled on because I really don't have a good pattern for.

Or even better, start working on $WINTER_HOLIDAY presents! There are some things I'd like to sew.

Also in the vein of sewing...mmm...watching Dancing With the Stars is fun in a whole new light! I'm now paying closer attention to some of the costumes...particularly to paso doble women's costumes (though I love most of the men's costumes - particularly if there's a lot of trim work).

Catching up...

2007-11-20T23:17:00.000-06:00

When I realized that I had to sew on the overlay, I also realized that when I beaded the waist-line trim, I did so in a stupid manner. At that point, I removed the beading I did, and lifted the front portion of the waist-line trim.

Then I hand sewed in the overlay, tacked it down so that it doesn't fly all over the place, and now I'm in the process of re-beading the trim - in such a manner that if I or someone else ever has to lift the trim again, the colored beading doesn't have to get pulled again.

Then I'll tack that back down, and proceed to bead the overlay and the rest of the bodice.

Solutions at hand...

2007-11-19T21:25:00.000-06:00

Solutions have been found, and have been passed around. I'm busily working on my added tasks which are almost done.

Rehearsal last night gave me more food for thought on the bead work for the overlay. So I've been playing with that in my mind pretty much all day. Obviously no one is going to see the detail from the audience, but what they will see is what sparkles and shines...and what *did* sparkle and shine from the V in the bodice last night was gorgeous. The light also picked up shine and sparkle from the trim around the overlay very nicely. I can't *wait* to see what else I can do to this tutu to really make it gorgeous on stage but not to the point were it's just too much.

Do you ever...

2007-11-18T23:22:00.001-06:00

Get that sick feeling in your stomach?

The jacket looks gorgeous ... off the dancer. On the dancer? It doesn't work so well. I got it on him, watched him move and ran back to the costumer "We have a problem, and I need you to come look...it's not right - it's too big in all the wrong areas."

I felt sick to my stomach, and of course the Snow Queen wasn't perfect either because this jacket has taken so long, and now I can't get the elastic to sit right as a means to fix it.

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Almost done...

2007-11-17T23:12:00.000-06:00

Cuff and bottom hems are done, adding trim and buttons...want to add more trim, but am at a loss of what exactly to add, and I'm sure this will change, so I'm adding it by hand now so it'll be a lot easier to change!

*sigh* The mock fit just right...

This one's too big :P

In case you were curious...

2007-11-17T02:45:00.001-06:00

Here's a back view...

of The Jacket That's Eating My Life.....

Pretty, ain't it?

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Today's my son's 4th b'day

2007-11-16T22:47:00.000-06:00

And I'm sick...so my productivity on the jacket went down signficantly as I stayed home from work to rest. I got some fun time in with my son, and some time in with the jacket.

Why is it that I can rip through creating a bodice in seemingly no time at all...or any number of other patterns I've done, but this jacket is threatening to seriously eat me alive? It's just going so slooooooow?

And in other news, my housemate is coming along with the headdress and it is *so* pretty!

Another quick update...

2007-11-15T23:58:00.001-06:00

The jacket is eating me alive...

I should be taking pictures, but I haven't been.

I've just been sewing. and making mistakes and trying not to get sick, but I"m not so sure that's working. NO! Not getting sick! Darnit!

Top half of jacket is done, top lining is done and sewn/tacked in.

Working on bottom half, which stumped me for a while. Had to redo the lining entirely for the bottom half :P.

And I have buttons now! And gold cord. And need to make epaulets (ungh)

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Coming up for air...sorta

2007-11-14T23:45:00.001-06:00

Busily working on the jacket...

Got the trim lifted on the tutu yesterday...so....lots of work to do, and yet, it's all quickly coming together - now let's see just how quickly I can make that!

Can't talk long. Have the top half of the jacket done, but not lined, and still need to finish the bottom half, add the zipper, and add trim/notions. That will have to wait until tomorrow - when I'll also have to work on the tutu...and work with the kids because it's band concert night...and a b'day is Friday...

Eeeep!

1:00pm Saturday. That's my deadline. I have to sleep before then, right? And work - can't forget work - which I'm doing - and working like a crazy person at that!

One of my crafty inspirations...

2007-11-13T17:43:00.001-06:00

One person taught me how to bead. She let me help her on her wedding dress. She also taught me how to emboss, crochet, and a number of other crafty foundation like things for the things I do now.

So these past few weeks while I've been working on these costumes, I've been thinking a lot about her. She lives in Indiana, and I haven't seen her in years - not since she and her family came up to visit her family that lived up here not terribly far from us (closer than the 15 hour drive that we'd moved in any case). Gosh by now it's been 8 years? Then 2 days ago my housemate finds a bunch of pictures in a basket sitting around as she's clearing out and organizing things. As I went through the basket of pictures, I see a picture of my friend.

So last night as I'm cutting out material, I realized that instead of listening to music, there's a phone call that I should make instead. So I dial 411 and ask directory assistance for their phone number. Last I'd heard they were still in the same town, and I'm hoping that's still the case. It is. When I hear her husband's voice (another good friend), I simply say, "Hi, [friend's name], it's [me]!" and just wait for realization to dawn. *smiles* I nearly cried, it was so good just hearing his voice. We talked for a few minutes, and then he passed the phone on to my friend. My friend who was the support structure and inspiration behind so many things. One of my closest friends in Indiana. One that I hadn't kept in as good of contact with. And there she was on the phone again across years of not hearing her voice. Again, I nearly cried.

There are those friendships that span across years and somehow someway they still remain. It feels like you reach across the void and touch your friend and they're still there, with you. I have a childhood friend like that...and apparently an adult friend like that. For as much as I've been thinking about M, she apparently was thinking about me more than normal, for she said, "It's funny that you call today..."

We talked until my phone died. We shared phone numbers. We shared email addresses. We shared updates.

M, thank you.

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Tonight's progress

2007-11-12T23:41:00.001-06:00

More like continuation from last night: Here are the pictures from last night:

Tonight was cutting out the pieces night. All of the pieces for the Nutcracker are cut except for the interfacing - and I need to mark the red fabric. All of the lining fabric is complete.

Dress rehearsal on Saturday. ACK.

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boogie

2007-11-11T21:05:00.000-06:00

I finished part of the mock (the important part), and went to a fitting. It looks like it'll work as is!

That was music to my ears because it means way less work for me. I can *totally* get into that.

Now that I'm falling asleep, though, time to figure out what to work on yet this evening. Pictures are one week from today!

Nutcracker Jacket #1, Snow Queen update

2007-11-11T00:16:00.001-06:00

Pieces for the mock jacket are cut out *woot*

They're not all marked up yet, but they will be first thing in the morning...and then sewed together loosely.

Fitting #1 is at sometime tomorrow (rehearsal for him is 1-3 and 5-7:15 so my morning is going to be...busy. I have a feeling fitting is going to take about a half an hour as I rip through things and pin and extend, etc...

Beading templates are done on the Snow Queen, so now it's time to bead the bodice...then bead the overlay, then attach the overlay.

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More with the Nutcracker

2007-11-10T16:15:00.001-06:00

So I'm playing catch up this weekend. I've been feeling ill the past week and a half, so I haven't been working at the pace I needed to. Hopefully today and tomorrow I can catch up.

Here are pictures I've needed to post for a while. I finished the trim earlier this week:

Then I finished the prototype for the Snow Girl arm bands. Someone else will be working on these. There are 12 girls that need arm bands. They are meant to be simple, but with elements of the Snow Queen added.

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Of predictability and chaos in troubleshooting

2007-11-09T21:01:00.001-06:00

If there's one thing I *hate* is unpredictability. Saying something to me is random and sporadic are great big buzzwords for me that are likely to elicit a groan. And then said person will get lots of questions about what's been going on. If I can't reproduce it, I can't fix it is pretty well my motto. Likewise, if it can't be reproduced and better yet purposefully induced? Then saying what the cause is, is iffy at best.

In a dynamic web app there are usually three layers: the database layer, the middle-layer or app-server layer, and then the application itself. Bottlenecks can happen in any one of these layers, and make it *seem* like the problem is in that layer or in another layer entirely. When a problem is sporadic, and there are no logs to support any likely hypothesis? I get antsy and frustrated. I also am more likely to sit and wait until more information comes my way, or I or someone else has yet another way to look at the situation that I haven't been able to figure out up until then. And until a problem is reproducible? I may have theories...and I may want to try different things...but I am in no way shape or form tied to any one particular theory or another.

And on a slightly different tangent. Writing an app to a new app server is frustrating at best. You see, I have a background in admin, support, and development. As such, I *really* hate the type of developer who doesn't take the deployment environment and administration into account...in addition to the user experience...when they develop their app. I have found myself becoming more of that developer I hate lately as I've been working closer and closer with an app server I'm not as familiar with. This shall be fixed - *soon*.

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Another quick post

2007-11-08T22:44:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry...I didn't do much in the way of crafting or geeking today.

Though! I am trying something new today. I have a pair of circular needles that I have never tried using before. Yes, tonight I will be attempting to learn to knit....again!

Of course pictures will be forthcoming :)

mmmm Perl

2007-11-07T21:47:00.001-06:00

Years ago I was given the opportunity to take a perl class through work. The thought was that I would get to use it a lot through my daily activities, but alas, I did not. I moved groups, and did actually use it a little bit in evaluating Notes logs, but never really did it often enough for it to become second nature or to ever consider myself an expert.

Oftentimes, if I have to create a script in perl, I'll find myself running to the Internet - being a Java junkie to isn't all that conversant in perl this isn't a huge surprise, but still..."What's CPAN?" "How do I install a module again?" "Well, shoot, how did that go again?"

I am very happy to say that I'm finally to the point where I don't have to run to the Internet to install a module anymore (thank you apt-get for making cpan not seem so foreign anymore), and File Handles are a breeze.

Why is this coming up today? I was asked by one of the organizations I volunteer for to help out with what would amount to be a long and tedious project. But with a little script would be a simple thing. Web-enabled and password protected it would enable certain people to handle future requests themselves.

I was told by someone tonight "You do code an awful lot"

Yes...yes I do. I'm a geek and I like to code. It makes me happy. :)

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Very quick post tonight

2007-11-06T22:46:00.001-06:00

And without the multimedia....

1) the hand sewed trim is *done* *woot*

2) My nearly-4-year-old son is a geeklet who *had* to post something tonight (in my private blog)

3) There's something just extra-special geeky sitting in your office sewing trim while watching Dancing With the Stars on one of the computers in your office.

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Java oh Java...

2007-11-05T21:00:00.001-06:00

Java is my programming language of choice, but not the only one I use. It's also my brew of choice...but not the only one I like...I do love my tea nearly as much as I love my coffee. But don't give me Folger's or Lipton. It was well enough known that I liked both such that when I was pregnant with my youngest child, he was nick named "Java Bean" by my co-workers. Around the house we nick named him Spud due to the song "My Little Potato" by a group named Metamora.

But I digress. These are the shops I tend to go to depending on what I'm getting:

Caribou Coffee...Headquartered in the Twin Cities, this is now looking to be a national chain, though I don't think they're quite as large as Starbuck's. My favorite drink? Mocha Java. Yum! This has got to be the best bean and roast aside from Jamaican Blue Mountain...and if you don't know what I'm talking about, please do educate yourself. I'm not sure I could quite do a description justice.

Dunn Bros...if you're not from the Twin Cities, you are definitely missing out on a local chain that is simply outstanding. Though they were a little disappointing and at the the same time exciting today when I noticed that they had the sign up mentioning that their holiday espresso drinks are in! Ack! No! It's not time yet! Favorite drink? Medium Full City regardless of what type of bean.

Starbucks...I drink Starbucks when the other two (now three) aren't available, but I do like their lattes. I can't stand their regular coffees. Favorite drink? Vanilla (or peppermint) latte.

Jo Jo's Rise and Wine...this is a new place (for me) that I found recently while stopping at a new bus stop. Their coffee was excellent, and they enticed me even further (and inadvertently made me miss my bus) with talk of live music.

For tea, there are pretty much only two places, with one preference by a large margin:

The Tea Source...favorite tea? Nilgiri Iyerpadi
Indigo Tea...favorite tea? I don't really have one. My favorite thing to do in this store is randomly go through teas. :)

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Quicky post because I have a lot of trim to work on

2007-11-04T19:53:00.001-06:00

I've got the overlay made!

The mock overlay:

The real overlay!

Adding trim - which I'm about to go keep working on:

It seems like this will never end. Hand sewing trim is definitely a punishment *laugh*

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Update from earlier

2007-11-04T01:22:00.001-05:00

I have the trim done on the bodice, finished the beading embellishment on the front existing trim, and tacked the front trim back down.

I still have bead work yet to do, and of course the overlay...

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I did say there would be crafts, didn't I?

2007-11-03T19:38:00.001-05:00

So, two of the children of this house are involved in a local production of The Nutcracker. It's a semi-professional production, which is pretty exciting. Part of the requirements of being part of the production is that parents have to volunteer.

Given that I sew, and bead, and crochet, and do all sorts of crafty fun, I chose to be a part of the costuming department.

Given that I build Renaissance Faire costumes and therefore likely have a fair knowledge of sewing and embellishment, they asked me to a) embellish their Snow Queen tutu and b) build and embellish a new jacket for the Nutcracker (this year's Nutcracker has longer arms than previous gentlemen).

So. I have been photo documenting my work as I go with these projects for two reasons:

1) I needed an excuse to learn to use my new camera

2) I wanted documentation of the process for when I do this again, because I'm finding that I truly enjoy building dance costumes - probably more than I enjoy building Faire costumes.

Why embellish the Snow Queen? The tutu is too white:

I keep saying we throughout this - one of my housemates and I are really working on this together. She's helping with beading/trim work - but most importantly the headdress/armbands, which will be jewelry. I do some jewelry, but really - she's the jewelry person. My forte is sewing. She would prefer to not sew anything that's going to be on stage.

The color we're going to add is very delicate and subtle - at the director's request. The original may be too white - but even still, she doesn't want a whole lot of color. She wants light, but more preferable shine:

We've pulled off and replaced some of the old trim, and added in colored beads to some of the other old trim.

One small section before adding beads:

Same section after adding beads:

And lastly before I go off and work more - another fun picture: The Head That Drove Us Crazy Trying To Find. We found her at Sally's Beauty Supply. Why do we need her? For the headdress:

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What the...Flock?

2007-11-02T22:01:00.001-05:00

You may have noticed the little message at the bottom of most of my posts referencing Flock. It's a new Mozilla based browser that I've been playing with and testing out. For those unfamiliar with the term Mozilla, you may be more familiar with Firefox - probably the most popular Mozilla based browser to date.

Flock is a browser that is literally tailored to the social browsing experience. Embedded into the default "My World" "Homepage" are links to Favorites, RSS feeds, quick links to various blogging services (Blogger, LiveJournal, Xanga, Blogsome, Typepad, Wordpress.com), picture hosting services (Photobucket, Flickr, Piczo) , and media services (YouTube). Online favorites like del.icio.us is also supported.

Adding a website to your favorites is as easy as clicking on a button. Literally. There's a large star button where you would normally see the large stop button in Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox (FF). And, in fact, I haven't yet figured out how to stop a page loading, and have instead added the same site several times to my favorites list because I was trying to stop said page from loading. *laugh*.

There's a very basic blogging client that is service agnostic. You write your post, then choose which blog to post to during the publishing stage...you can have as many blogs as you would like associated with your installation of Flock, all you need to do to activate an account within Flock is log in to your blog/journal service. It's the same with adding any of the above types of services to your Flock environment regardless of whether it's a media service, photo sharing service, or blogging service, etc...

But the above only scratch the service of some of the best features of Flock, in my opinion. Where I see some of the real benefit has to do with media sharing. Between the ease of uploading pictures to photo sharing services, the media bar, and the web clipboard...sharing information in a social manner could not be any simpler.

There are drawbacks, of course. Flock's interface is different from IE's or FF's...so learning to navigate around the new buttons and windows was at first a little intimidating, even for someone who likes to click buttons and dig around a fair bit. But once you get to experience some of the bells and whistles, you won't want to go back to the other browsers.

Unfortunately, for the professional geek like me, not going back is not an option. *chuckle*

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NaBloPoMo...or what have I gotten myself into?

2007-11-01T21:14:00.000-05:00

NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. Some of you may have heard of it. For aspiring authors, or some dedicated authors...or just those who enjoy writing, this is the month of months. The crazy time of the year when 50,000 words drive you insane.

Over the past 6 years that I've had a private blog, I've been introduced to this annual event, then watched as any number of friends succumbed to this frenzy of words streaming from their keyboards (and sometimes pen and paper)...oftentimes in amazement, and sometimes in horrific fascination. I am not a writer. My SATs may have been high enough to get me into college a year early, but trust me - that doesn't mean diddly squat. I am scientist by nature and training, and prose is not my forte except when it comes to reading it.

So this year, my housemate decided to join up...and my other housemate looked into the possibility of the corresponding photography event...so I thought, what's a similar challenge that I can do? What's something I do well that I could do for a month? Honestly? The only thing I know I do really well? Is blog. This is why I chose to participate in Blogathon this past summer.

Enter NaBloPoMo - The Blogging equivalent of NaNoWriMo. I've decided to give it a shot. At least one blog post a day...in public....I can do that. I think...

News of the weird...laptops playing trick or treat?

2007-10-31T23:08:00.001-05:00

I have this relatively old Sony Vaio that I believe I mentioned in another post. It's not super speedy. IIRC, it's a PII...don't remember the processor speed...and it's got 128M RAM. I know this because I bought the maximum possible RAM I could soon after I received my laptop and installed it myself.

My laptop was a hand me down from a friend who upgraded around the time that I was looking for something basic to code on and generally surf the internet.

This was actually around the time that I first put Ubuntu on a laptop. It was Hoary Hedgehog at the time. This laptop originally had Windows something or other on it, and it was really slow compared to what I was spoiled on at work (really nice machine + 1G RAM ... the reasoning behind that was that my boss told IT that I had to run BEA WebLogic and Eclipse on my laptop - I needed the RAM *woot*).

So things were going along pretty good. I upgraded to Dapper Drake along the way...I was able to play with most everything I wanted to. I couldn't play WoW or anything really graphically intensive, but that's ok. I never wanted to do that with this computer anyway. What I *wanted* to do with this computer was to code, and browse, and read documentation, and blog. I could do all of that.

Then one day I lost my hyphen....and my 6. Well, shoot. As it turns out, I had lost the functionality of several other keys.

About 6 months ago or so, I noticed that my DVD drive wasn't working either. I had tried to play a movie for my son, and it wouldn't play....then I tried to upgrade to Feisty...no go. Well (*#(*&#($*&. That just wouldn't do! My housemate and I tried pulling things apart and looking at them. I pulled the keyboard apart and cleaned it really well, hoping that maybe it was just dirty connections. Nope. Still nothing. I learned alternate means of typing - and 6, which I use fairly regularly...the other characters mapped to those keys I would just have to live without or cut and paste or something, but since I don't use them as often, I could deal. I even had to teach my daughter the work arounds since she uses this laptop for her homework.

So this evening, I started typing up something, and realized that I was using the real hyphen key, and was actually getting a hyphen! So I typed a 6 with the key you normally expect to get a 6 from...and it worked. Uh. Cool. So I tried both again. And they still worked. So I had to try them both lots, and I may have used them up, because after typing with them a bunch, they no longer work again (yes, I know it doesn't really work that way).

I still have no clue as to what is *actually* going on with these keys...and I haven't tested my DVD player to see if maybe that mysteriously works again. Who knows? It'd certainly be a nice treat! I'd like to think it's not tricking me. Because you know, computers aren't supposed to do that whole trick or treat thing!

Happy Halloween!

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Women and linux

2007-10-27T00:47:00.001-05:00

I read an amusing thought tonight as I was trying to track down a problem a friend was having. In doing so, I ran across some somewhat unrelated-to-the-problem blogs. In one such blog, the gentleman said, "chicks don't dig linux". I was actually kind of amused given my immersion in it. But then I had to look around. I was helping another woman friend of mine troubleshoot her linux problem. I have other friends who are women who are genuinely excited about using linux...and more specifically one of the four variants of Ubuntu.

Not to mention, there is one lady in particular whose interest in my writing about geeky stuff (which has been of a more linux and java persuation lately) that really influenced my decision to start posting publically.

I also seem to recall that one of the founding members of Free and Open Island in Second Life is another Ubuntu user ... she's also a woman. (no longer a member of FAOI, but still very active in that particular area.

And better yet, to tie it in with both the crafty and the geeky, there's Ravelry. And I know I wasn't the only woman drooling over their post picturing their serversand announcing that they use linux (Gentoo to be specific).

So, ladies...if there are any of you out there reading this blog yet, I know it's relatively new and there are like no readers yet (well, I know there are 2 readers so far, I just don't know who you are or whether you're female or not)...do you "dig linux"?

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Of upgrades and changes

2007-10-25T20:52:00.001-05:00

I am a linux geek at home. I'd love to be one at work too, but hey - you can't have it all, and I believe the rumor mill says that that's coming down the pike. I have three boxes at home that I work with: a personal desktop, a personal laptop, and a work desktop. Both of my personal boxes run a "flavor" of linux. The work desktop runs Windows.

My laptop is an *old* Sony Vaio - a PII something or other that I can't remember off the top of my head, with only 128M of RAM. I've upgraded it to its maximum capacity at this point...and it has a whopping 5.5G hard drive. Yeah, every once in a while I even feed the hamsters that run it! So the DVD drive in it died sometime over the past 6 months or so, and I figured it was perma-stuck on the older version of Ubuntu that it was running. (Dapper Drake, to be specific).

This weekend was Ubuntu's big annual fall release, though, and I was really jonesing to get those updates. So I figured out what my problem was with upgrading my laptop, and FINALLY upgraded from Dapper Drake (6.06) to Gutsy Gibbon (7.10). For those of you not familiar with the Ubuntu family of linux distributions, that's a 4 major release spread. My updates took all weekend long...that whole downloading everything over wifi because that whole DVD drive not working. Yeah, not fun, but I'll take it!

For those that don't know, Ubuntu releases major versions 2 times a year pretty much like clockwork. It's one of the reasons I love this particular distribution. Every version has become progressively more user friendly to work with, install, upgrade, etc. Every version has become significantly prettier. And if you like bling? Linux does bling really well. In fact, linux does bling a heck of a lot better than Windows did pre-Vista, and I won't touch Vista with a 10 foot pole.

There are 4 flavors of *buntu:

Ubuntu: The original flavor :). This is a GNOME based desktop/Window Manager. It's pretty resource intensive for the most part, but nothing my old Sony Vaio can't handle without too much complaint. The biggest complaint is that it eats up a fair amount of my 5.5G hard drive, but no where near as much as Windows did. And there's no WAY I could install Vista on this particular box at all.

Kubuntu: Same thing, but geared towards KDE fans, which is a different Window Manager. Asking someone which is better, KDE or GNOME, is likely to get you involved in a Holy War much like two Coke and Pepsi fans which one tastes better. Personally? I've always strayed towards the midline (except in that whole Coke/Pepsi war..Coke all the way bay-bee!). There are things I like about each.

I've just spent the past 6 months running an OLD version of Ubuntu on my laptop and the latest and greatest (until this weekend) version of Kubuntu on my desktop. I'm hard pressed to say which I like better, though I did switch to Ubuntu with the latest update. I had some issues on my desktop that required a reinstall, and I had the Ubuntu disk rather than the Kubuntu disk.

Xubuntu: Similar to the above, but light! This one is based on the lighter XFCE Window Manager with a GNOME look and feel. Think GNOME-lite and you've pretty well got the picture. Also bundled with it are Abiword instead of OpenOffice (AbiWord has a smaller footprint than OO). I just moved the laptop to Xubuntu. I'd been hesitant to try it because I'd read some documentation that indicated Xubuntu's File Manager, Thunar was not real network savvy and difficult to configure with samba. That may still be the case, but I use a package called fusesmb, which takes care of all of my network exploration and mounting for me and works even with Xubuntu and Thunar. Enough that I'm liking what I see so far and am willing to give it a shot for a while!

Edubuntu: This one is AWESOME. This is a flavor of Ubuntu specifically geared towards an educational setting. It's meant to be set up with a server and dumb terminals so that setting up satellite computers is a breeze. It comes preloaded with not just "office productivity" software, but educational software as well.

So...why do I write this all out? In case you're interested in giving it a try. I figured I'd help navigate a little bit around this OS that I've really come to love a lot. I've gotten rid of Windows entirely. Now, yes, I work with computers for a living. And yes...I do futz with my computer a lot, but that's often times because I'm intentionally trying out new packages and doing things that are NOT "out of the box".

Something else I love about this distro? The forums. For example. I had a problem with my upgrade. Every time I went to bring up a terminal window in Xubuntu, XWindows crashed. This was really not cool. So I did a search, found the problem. Someone else had experienced the exact same thing, and another user provided the steps to fix it. (For those that are interested, I had to go into /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change my Color Depth from 24 to 16). Now, I won't say that linux is necessarily ready for everyone just yet...but I do feel that it is a heck of a lot closer than it's ever been. Enough that I'm actively excited about the prospect!

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Dusting this blog off...

2007-10-25T18:09:00.001-05:00

So once upon a time I created this blog with the intent of creating a public blog. It was a means by which I could communicate with family and friends who *don't* have blogs or journals on the private community I participate in. Obviously that particular endeavor failed.

But what has happened is that I've found my writing evolving. I've found myself actually taking the time to write about some of the crafts that I've been working on, and the geeky projects I've gotten involved in. And hey! There's actually a public place I created well suited for that kind of talk.

Even better, I got a random anonymous query on my private journal asking me a development question. What better place to put something like that then right here! So - expect to see more content here in one of two avenues:

- crafts: I sew and crochet for the most part, but I also dabble in lampworking, beading, and some cross stitch.

- geekery: I am a computer geek by day (and night). I'm a java developer, who also dabbles in perl. I work with various open source projects both at work and at home, and run linux 100% at home. I play WoW (yes on linux).

So those are the categories under which you are likely to see topics. Feel free to ask questions - I'm more likely to answer geeky questions or questions about crochet.

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Ramblings of a crafty geek

Resurection of a blog

I can has desktop eye candy

Promoting a high school friend's site

Help me Obiwan

Ubuntu 8.04...check

New type of geekery about to be posted here: baking and cooking!

Testing out a new IM client

How to tell one is a crafting geek?

Spring doily edge closeup

Works in progress, here I come!

G33ky distractions ahoy!

It's been a quiet week

NaBloPoMo - I actually did it.

I love being a woman geek

She wore what!?

Troubleshooting

Frustrations with WebSphere

Back to my old projects....

*woot*

I see the light at the end of the tunnel...

Happy Gobble Gobble Day Everyone!

This and that...

Catching up...

Solutions at hand...

Do you ever...

Almost done...

In case you were curious...

Today's my son's 4th b'day

Another quick update...

Coming up for air...sorta

One of my crafty inspirations...

Tonight's progress

*boogie*

Nutcracker Jacket #1, Snow Queen update

More with the Nutcracker

Of predictability and chaos in troubleshooting

Another quick post

mmmm Perl

Very quick post tonight

Java oh Java...

Quicky post because I have a *lot* of trim to work on

Update from earlier

I did say there would be crafts, didn't I?

What the...Flock?

NaBloPoMo...or what have I gotten myself into?

News of the weird...laptops playing trick or treat?

Women and linux

Of upgrades and changes

Dusting this blog off...

woot

boogie

Quicky post because I have a lot of trim to work on