D.A.C.: Day two

Today's craft, along the same lines as yesterday's kumihimo braid, is finger-loop braiding!



I remembered seeing a Youtuber that I follow make a tutorial for these, so I figured now was a good time to try it.
It looks like a basic three-strand braid, but it's actually made with five loops that you hook on your fingers and shift around. (Apparently these were popular in camps...I never went to camp so I don't know.)
Today's craft was, evidently, also Creative Thinking Photography. How do you take a picture of yourself when your hands are keeping the braid from unraveling?




These things are SO FAST to make. I made my first in about ten minutes.



Then I made a second one.



Then I made a third one.



They're not really bracelets, since the ends aren't long enough to tie. I just braided until the embroidery floss ran out. Maybe I'll make them into keychains.
I didn't expect to like finger-looping as much as I did. It's fast and easy. Unlike most friendship bracelets, they're quite tactile, so it's possible to make one by touch while watching videos. And it also uses shorter lengths of embroidery floss than a knotted bracelet, so I was able to use up some scraps. Yay!

Tomorrow I'm going to strive to make something that isn't a friendship bracelet. Not sure what that is yet, but we'll see!

The Daily Artisan challenge: Day one

Day one:
I started this challenge because I'd been itching to try some new things. When I get into something (like knotted friendship bracelets), I go a little insane. I do lots of research on the thing, lurk on forums, and generally build up a mental system. Anything outside the system (non-bracelet macrame, bracelets that don't use the right knot) will be determinedly ignored (note that I still do other stuff besides that one thing...I just ignore similar crafts). Eventually, I expand the system to include other stuff (the square knot), and usually at this point the whole thing breaks down and I move onto a new interest. This happened with all sorts of stuff, from flowers to fantasy to bracelets. Most recently my obsession was knitting (which works a lot better than an obsession with knotted friendship bracelets), but recently I found myself wondering what it would be like to try something new (even contemplating...*gasp*...crochet).

Enter day one's project: the kumihimo bracelet.


I found a foam disk in my bag of macrame stuff, along with the beginnings of a bracelet. I had bought it several years ago during another "let's-branch-out" phase. Unfortunately, it messed up after the first centimeter and, frustrated, I abandoned it in my bag. But yesterday I rescued it, undid my work, and restarted.
The label just said "friendship bracelet maker", but I found out it's a fancy Japanese braiding technique called kumihimo. They're traditionally made on a frame/loom called a maru dai (according to Google), but disks with slots work quite well.

The bracelet is made by removing threads from their slots...



...and fitting them into new slots on the opposite side of the disk.



The bracelet grows through the hole in the middle.



Basically, it's 3D braiding without having to hold all the strings. At first I would keep getting confused with all the strands, and had to repeat "right to right", "left to left" all the time...but after a while I got into the rhythm. The whole thing only took me a couple hours, and that's including the unbraiding I did from my first attempt.

Final product:



Pros: I like that it looks like knotting, and that it's fairly fast while still looking intricate. Cons: it was still a little slow, though, and I got bored as I was nearing the end. Overall, pretty cool. I'd be curious to try this with more colors.

The Daily Artisan challenge

Hello! Sorry I disappeared for a year. To tell you the truth, I've been having doubts about what this blog is supposed to be...about. I mean, nobody (from my limited experience) is interested in reading a "general life stuff" blog, but I don't want to just limit myself to one topic, and if I do limit myself to one topic maybe I need a separate blog, in which case there will be nothing to write about here... *angst* *ponder* *philosophize* *reminisce*

Anyway. Blog-existentialism aside, I came up with a challenge for myself: try one new craft/art a day, and write about the experience. Originally I was thinking of making it into a vlog, but I realized it wouldn't make a very interesting video. I think the blog medium works better for this kind of challenge.
More on this later, but the guidelines I will follow are:

1. The craft doesn't have to be something I haven't ever tried, as long as there is something new to it (for example: I knit quite a lot, but have never tried the technique of making cables).
2. No repeats. I can continue something if I find I like it, but it won't count if I write about friendship bracelets twice.
3. I have to blog about every craft/art/technique, but I don't have to write every day. I can make one huge post a week, if I want.
4. By now you're probably wondering how long I'm going to do this. My first idea was to go for a full year, which I think will be entertaining once I start running out of crafts ("Today I learned how to...rake leaves..."). However, I don't want to be stuck doing this for so long if I start to hate it, so my current goal is "go until I fail", and we'll see from there.

If you're interested in my idea, I would appreciate suggestions for crafts/arts/artisan-things to do over the [undisclosed period of time].

Sorry this post is rushed. I wanted to get the introduction out of the way so I can move on with the challenge. Wish me luck!

Blogging challenge: OVER!

The blogging challenge is officially done!! Thanks to everyone who participated. This has encouraged me to try to blog more often...because it turns out I have lots of things to say!
So, here's a little survey for you guys to fill out. You can either reply in comments, or make a new post on your blog.

Would you do WLBC again?

Would you want to make it a tradition? If so, how often would you want to do it? (Annual, bi-annual, monthly, etc.)

How long should the blogging go for? (A week, two weeks, a month, etc.)

Should you have to blog daily, or once every two days, or once a week?

Has this challenge helped you increase the quality of your blog? If so, how?

That's all. Thanks for filling it out! Maybe I'll reply to it myself later.

Sunday: Auditions and the good old days

The last day of WLBC! We made it! I'll write a "closing notes" (as well as a survey) post tomorrow, so I'll just make this a quick "yay": Yay!

Now, onto today's post. I actually have two things to talk about, but I'm not sure which one to go for first. So...I'll flip this pencil. *flips* Ok, auditions it is.

The next play our teen acting group will be doing is The Tempest (which I might blog about later, but I want to keep this short). And this time there'll be auditions. I'm really worried, because, although they changed two roles to girl roles (so now there are three), one is already taken, so that just leaves two. And there are, what, eight girls auditioning? AND we can't play for guys. So...seriously nerve-racking. Good luck to the people auditioning, even though 99% don't read my blog!

The second thing I wanted to mention was that I've been re-reading a lot of my early posts from 2005. It's funny how my writing style changed in three years. I think back then I viewed a blog like a diary: where you write about stuff that happened to you...or, failing that, you write about current interests. I talked a lot about Myst, and internet adoptables, but you somehow never really found out what I was like. What I thought about the world, or WHY I liked the Myst series so much (hmm...that could make an interesting post, actually). That's what a blog is to me now.
So...what about you? What makes a blog interesting for you, and (if you have a blog) how is your style different now compared to your earlier entries?

Well, I'm done with the blogging challenge! See you tomorrow, where I talk about celebratory things and plan for future challenges. =)

Saturday: The big picture

I've always been competitive. I compare a lot of things, and usually it's fun, but sometimes I compare myself to other people.

I remember I used to worry I'd be the last among my friends to lose all my baby teeth. Ok, I only have 4 baby teeth left...if I lose this one during our vacation I'll have caught up with so and so... Ok, maybe not quite like that, but it was close.

And then...we all finished with our baby teeth. And my competitiveness seems really silly now. I lost track of the big picture: that in the end most of us won't remember how we lost our baby teeth anyway, and we'll all be adults with normal adult teeth. Does it matter who lost what when?

Now that I'm almost done growing, I compare heights a lot. Oh no, I'm shorter than X but at least I'm taller than Y...and I'm not sure about Z, but I think... But, you know, who cares? The height thing will probably seem just as silly in a few years.

I'm sure there are other things like that too. Friends on Facebook. Or how many commenters I have. I generally don't do that, but I can't help it sometimes. But I need to realize that even if I don't have a lot of readers/followers/commenters, there are still people who read my blog. And not just random people, either...they're my friends. I think that's better than a lot of internet strangers.

Friday: Recycled content

Don't worry, this isn't going to be a post about something I've already talked about.
Today I'm actually going to post about recycled content.

When you read a label that says "80 percent recycled content", you think, "Yay! It's environmental!" But what if you read that in a book review?
That was the title of a review on Amazon.com. I'm reading the book ("Juggler of Worlds" by Larry Niven and Edward Lerner) in question, so I've decided to write about that today.

What, exactly, is a book with "recycled content"? In my case, it's a book with certain plot points that have been used before, in short stories (and occasionally other books) by the same author. As in, the actual plots of the short stories. In LN's defense, he did write those parts from different perspectives than the first time, which seemed to change it enough, plus the way he fit all those different plots into a whole was interesting. But still, it's recycled.

When I heard it the first time, two thoughts came to mind: "That's kinda lazy", and "So am I supposed to read all those stories first?" That's my question today: would a new reader want to read the original stories first, and then the book? Or just the book itself?

On one hand, if you just read the book you get the end result either way, and with less effort because most of the plot points are shortened. But that way you probably won't want to read the stories afterward, because the endings have already been spoiled. And not just that: since the plot is condensed, it's not as full and interesting in the book as it would have been in the story.

On the other hand, if you read the stories first, then the book won't be so interesting. And, again, since all the side-plot things will be shortened, it won't be as cool to read as it is in the story.

I think most LN readers ended up reading the stories first, just because they were published a long time before the book. Since I'm new, I actually had the choice. What did I do? I only read some of the short stories. So that way it's only 20-40 percent recycled content, and yet I know the kind of thing I'm missing. So if I'm interesting in something, I can go look for the short story to get the full version.

So, I suppose in the end it depends on how dedicated you are. What would you do? What if you didn't have the choice of a mix? (If I didn't, I'd probably read all the short stories first, but that's just because I'm a fan of the author.)

This post was freakishly hard to write for some reason. I guess I'm not in a writing mood today. Oh well, I've finally got it out of my head! Thanks, as always, for reading. Bye!

Thursday: Audio books

Thursday already? We're halfway there, guys! Keep blogging!

When I'm reading a book that isn't going well for me, but that I have to read (for the book club, for example), you'll often hear me saying, "I'm not getting through it, so I've ordered the audio book from the library."

Sometimes I wonder why I find listening to audio books more engaging than printed books. Is it because if I find a description boring, I can just not pay much attention to it and it'll go by? Is it because I can multitask while I'm listening?

Well, yes, but I think there's more to it than that. I'm very people-oriented, and when I listen to someone I pay attention. Certain things seem more interesting when I hear someone talking about it.

Technically you could say that just reading a book is sort of like listening to someone talking (the narrator, the characters). It is, and that's why I love to read (especially dialogue). At the same time, it's not as close to the real thing as an audio book. And I think that's the reason I like audio books so much.

I know this isn't the same for everyone. My mom, for example, prefers reading to listening.

What do you think? Do you like audio books, but for a different reason? Do you hate them? Discuss!

Wednesday: Ages

I'm at day three in the week-long-blogging-challenge, and while I'm not sure what to write about (especially in the coming days), I'm sure I'll figure something out.
A couple of years ago, when I was still really into the Myst Series games, I used to make "Ages" (other worlds) using two very different programs: Photoshop and Terragen.
With Photoshop, I'd combine elements from different photos to create surreal-looking images. Here are some of my favorite ones:





There's also Terragen, which...um, generates terrain. The Ages I made with Terragen look more alike, but they have a more uniform realistic look, since the lighting is all the same. Although I started out making more Photoshop Ages, once I got the hang of Terragen I liked it better. Here are some Terragen Ages:





As you can see, I like to work with lots of water, but you can also make terrain without water.
Well, thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for commenting!

Tuesday: Star Trek

Herein lies day two of the "WLBC", as Dorothy called it. (BTW...yay, three people are participating in it!)

Well, my nerdiness is complete: I watch Star Trek on TV. It started when I went to see the new Star Trek movie (which was really good, by the way). Soon after, I found out that the actual TV series (two series', actually: the original and the Next Generation) was showing in the late mornings. So, I was curious and started watching it.

The "first generation"...that is, the original, is very...sixties. The music is really cheesy ("dun dun...DUNNNNNNN!"), the acting isn't great, and the planets they go to look a LOT like movie sets (maybe because they are? Dun dun DUNNN!). But the funny thing is, it kind of grows on you. I wasn't around in the sixties, and I haven't watched it until now, so there isn't any nostalgia for me. But it's kind of sweet. And some of the episodes have really interesting stories.

I was more into "The Next Generation" when I first started watching. Despite the fact that I was unfamiliar with the characters, I began to like them quickly. It was also somewhat more...believable, I guess. Graphics, music...it absorbed easier. Now I like them equally, because their so different from each other despite having the same setting.

I haven't seen any of the other Star Trek series' (I heard Deep Space Nine is darker in storyline, so that might be interesting), but maybe I'll look for them on YouTube.

Anyway, I'm one of those people that like SF for the story and the characters, rather than the ideas and the science. In some ways, Star Trek reminds me of Larry Niven's "Known Space" universe. Both things seem to put more emphasis on the "science" than the "fiction"...although, I still somehow really like both. I guess I can find enough character to be interested, even if the creator didn't put it there. (I'm talking more about Known Space here than Star Trek...I think Star Trek has some really cool characters, especially TNG. Although so does Known Space.)

And that's it for now. As always, thanks for reading.

Dun dun DUNNNNNN!

Monday: blogging and hair

I was just looking over the comments in my previous post. Thanks for giving me your thoughts, guys...I'm always interested to read them. I actually got inspired to write in my blog more, inspired enough to try something I've been wanting to do for a while: a post-every-day-for-a-week challenge! What am I going to talk about during that time? I have no idea, but hopefully I'll come up with something. I've been wanting to try this for a while, just to see how long I could pull it off. I'll try for a week, and maybe I'll extend it if I feel like it. So...might as well start now! (If anyone wants to take part, feel free.)
So...here's one thing that's on my mind right now. Does anyone watch video blogs (or "vlogs") on YouTube? I do, sometimes. It's interesting that in some ways it's really similar to blogging, but it's also quite different. It seems like if you want a successful vlog, you have to know what you're saying in each entry. Rambling is just kind of boring to watch. In blogging, there's more wiggle-room in terms of how much you want to talk. Or maybe what sounds like rambling in a video sounds more structured in a blog post. *shrug*
Also, I'm getting a haircut today (don't worry, this isn't going to be a rant about the style). It's going to be "medium" in terms of length, and I haven't had hair like that since I was six. Actually, when I was six and decided to grow it I claimed I would never have short hair again. Heh, things change. Well, this is supposed to be the age when you try things! I might go even shorter if I like it a lot. Ok, you probably didn't want to read about that. Oh well!
Well, that's about it. Tune in tomorrow, when I talk about...other random things!