Hijacked!

She's been hijacked! Quick, call the COPs, dial 911, contact the FBI! Someone get that license plate number!

Nah, not really. She hasn't been hijacked. She's knitting right in front of me ... so peaceful. I wish I had a digital camera right about now so I could post a picture of her with this entry. Oh well. Maybe next time. Oh hey Cookie Monster? Bring your camera next time! Maybe I can get a goofy shot of you too, hee! Anyway, thanks for the opportunity to hijack you. Enjoy the quik-fix. If you want it back, uh ... you know where to find me (it's easier to show you than it is to explain.) You owe me some chocolate ice-cream covered with dark fudge. Or strawberry covered cheesecake. That'll do. :)

-- squiggle

Von, Von Silly Veb Qviz! Ah ha ha ha!

I saw this on At My Knits End a few days ago when I took a moment to peruse a blog and had to try it.

The Count's Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

It started with a simple affection for counting and
the terror it induced in others, didn't it?
But now it's turned into a full-blown
life-consuming chaotic nightmare of order,
repetition, zealousness, and perfectionism.
You used to be so grand, but now you find
yourself obsessively worrying over the littlest
things--like, maybe if you don't check the
light switch at least once every two minutes,
the electricity will go out (and damnit, you're
a vampire--that shouldn't be a problem!), or
maybe if you don't wash your hands until your
seams are coming out, you'll get some fatal
disease. Get yourself some treatment.


Which Sesame Street Muppet's Dark Secret Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

It's always a little worrisome when they're so accurate, isn't it? Ok, so I don't wash my hands until my seams are coming out, but I knit accurate, fussy, little stuff. I haven't put any of my yarn away because I want a certain type of (apparently non-existent) cabinet to display it in. (Why put it away when I could look at it? It's pretty -- that's why I bought it!) The knitting books are on their shelf alphabetically by author. I had to make a grading sheet for the current lab because I wasn't comfortable with "completed lab report, correct calculations, correct identification of unknown metal, accuracy within 5% of correct molar mass, and good attempt at answering postlab questions: Assign 20 points" as a grading guideline.

I just accept these things and keep looking for those cabinets. :)

Knitting Content

Sorry I'm still too lazy to take more pictures. You can imagine some white seed stitch on 0's, right? Keep that thought.

I've finished the back and one front on this jacket and was made good progress on the second front at knitting on Saturday. I ran out of yarn, but I can get some more from my supplier. I knit at the Borders North group every other week and try to get some knitting time with my mom on the other weekends, so I expect that I should be able to finish it before the baby outgrows it! I wish I had more time to knit, or was brave enough to broach the subject with my advisor to see if I could knit during group meeting, but I'm not feeling that brave yet. Maybe in a while...

I saw a girl on campus last week who had a really cute hat. It had a bobble pattern on the top and a wide (1" - 1.5") brim that was knit sideways in the round. The cool part was that the end of the brim was tapered to a triangle and it had a big button on it, like it was a tab. (Maybe when I have more time I can make a sketch.) I asked if I could look at it and she said sure and turned her head. I said, "Can you take it off so I can touch it?" She thought it was the strangest thing that had ever happened to her. (The hat, if it was handknit, was made by someone in an n-th world country.) I examined and returned her hat and went on my merry way, thinking, "Well, she's just not a knitter!"

I wonder if that would look good with that Koigu I tried to make the other hat out of...

Cume Content

I haven't gotten my cume back yet, so no word on that. It was a good exam, I thought, but as Kim said, the challenge was saying enough in the short time allotted! If anyone would like further head explosion, I have a spectroscopy exam on Tuesday morning. :)

I'm already in the family business! I format all of the sock of the month patterns. They pay in yarn. I have to have this other career since Safeway doesn't take socks in exchange for groceries.

Brenda, I love those cookies! But if I spend a lot of time studying on the couch, I don't want to turn into a blimp. :) I'm sitting here with an end-of-the-season cantalope now instead of eating more banana bread. But if cookies showed up at my door, rest assured that they wouldn't be wasted. ;)

What I do when I'm not knitting

...which is most of the time. I study, study, teach, grade, study, and also study. And then I get to take exams.

Just for filler, here's the first cume I took. (I have to pass 6 before I fail 11 in the first two years. I hope this won't be a problem. These are 1-hour exams offered the first Saturday (at 9am!) of every month.) I was able to answer 75% (we were given some broad categories to study in advance!), but I don't know whether my 75% was correct enough or how well you have to do to pass. Hopefully it won't be long.

"Electrochemical Aspects of: 1) Development of Renewable Energy Resources in the 21st Century; 2) Hydrogen as a Replacement for Fossil Fuels.

1. Current predictions suggest that global production of fossil fuels will reach its peak sometime in the next 50 years (some studies suggest it may have already peaked!).

a) What challenges does the peaking of fossil fuel production pose for highly developed countries (e.g., the United States)?
b) How are these challenges different for developing countries and countries with very large populations?
c) Name at least three distinctly different types of renewable energy. For each briefly comment on its availability, current cost effectiveness and how energy is produced.

2. The advantages of fuel cells in comparison to combustion engines have been known since the 1800's. However, fuel cells are only now being considered for widespread transportation applications (e.g., automobiles).
a) What is the primary advantage of fuel cells w.r.t. to (sic) the the internal combustion engine for converting chemcial fuels into usable energy?
b) Despite their inherent advantages, why has the development of fuel cells lagged behind the development of combustion engines?
c) What is a PEM fuel cell? Why was the PEM fuel cell considered to be a technological breakthrough?
d) There are three general types of H2/O2 fuel cells: acidic cells, basic cells, and solid oxide cells. What is (sic) the main advantages and disadvantage of each type of cell?

3. One possible renewable source of hydrogen is through photochemical water splitting. There are currently three basic types of photochemical systems being explored for this purpose:
- photovoltaic (PV) electrolysis
- direct semiconductor photolysis
- genetically modified photosynthetic bacteria
For two of the three photochemical systems:
a) Explain (using diagrams, reactions, etc.) how each system produces pure hydrogen.
b) Describe one important technical issue that needs to be overcome in order for the system to produce hydrogen economically.
c) Describe one key advantage and one key disadvantage of the system for producing hydrogen.

4. While hydrogen/oxygen fuel cells are the most efficient, the use of methane and methanol are bieng considered as alternatvies to hydrogen for fuel cells.
a) Why are researchers trying to develop methane and methanol fuel cells given that H2/O2 fuel cells are already highly efficient?
(Hint: what is the biggest problem associated with using hydrogen as a fuel?)
b) What is the electrochemical half-reaction that occurs in the anode compartment (where oxidation occurs) for fuel cells that utilize methanol as a fuel?
c) Compared with H2/O2 fuel cells, cells using methane or methanol are less efficient and produce less energy per cell mass (energy density). Why?
d) Unlike H2/O2 fuel cells, cells based on methane or methanol have an environmental disadvantage. What is it? Is it possible to eliminate this disadvantage?"

3am means time to sleep, not time to blog

I just wrote up a nice little entry about how I don't have time to knit, and then lost it because I'm too tired to pay attention. I think it's bedtime.

Betsy, the pattern is from Brigitte Lang Originals, and seems to be called Hedgehog (it might be #007). I bought it at Sakonnet Purls in Tiverton, RI this summer, but the pattern has a url for www.rainbowfibres.com. They have a kit for $12.50, but it only needs about 1 yd of nose/eye yarn, 3 yds of face yarn, and 16 yards of fun fur.

Sorry I lost the more interesting post. I think it's time for bed.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Mom thinks hedgehogs are awfully cute. I saw this pattern a while ago and knew I had to make her one. It was a quick little present that gave me a little break from studying. (Here's
another photo, for a sense of scale.)

(The face is made with Debbie Bliss leftovers from the baby dress and the body is Fun Fur that Dava gave me. It had been knit into a cowl and had to be unraveled. This turned into the party game at my going-away-party in Boston, and I didn't have to undo any of the nasty snarls that this stuff gets into!)

Now we'll just have to make sure that mom's boys don't think that this is a toy for them.

Oscar (left) and Max (right)

Max says, "But I'm Mamma's perfect baby. I could never be mad... Besides, that's Fun Fur. I prefer wool-silk blends, and Trekking XXL sock yarn."

What the ?!

(For a girl who doesn't have time to knit, what's she doing with this stuff?)