Library of Babel - Weird. I like the minimalist design of this website. If nothing else you could use it as a soothing escape from all flashy, noisy websites that are always trying to get our attention.
Stuff You Do While Sleeping - Nothing surprising; I already knew about all of these but there's a really cute kitten at the top of the page.
Top Films About Time Travel - I have seen several of these. I'm not really a fan of the concept of time travel but sometimes it makes a good story.
Miniatures - Everyone has been sharing this on Twitter and Facebook so you've probably seen it already but I just have to say, one more time, this is amazing!
I got a new Samsung tablet. So far all I've done on it is Twitter. I'm feeling a little guilty about having it. I'm feeling like, it's a very expensive toy and I should not waste that much money on a toy for myself. Here's how this happened. I mentioned last week that I thought I might like to have a tablet, thinking that someone might remember and get it for me for Christmas but my other half wanted to get it for me right away. He did ask yesterday if I wanted to go ahead and get or if I wanted it for Christmas. That's not how Christmas gifts are supposed to work! You're not supposed to know what you're getting for Christmas! So I said let's get it.
It's great for Twitter, except that typing on it actually seems slower than on my phone. I'm going to make an effort to do something with it besides just Twitter. I have to justify owning it. And I'll still do Twitter on my phone sometimes because my phone is always with me.
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I finally started quilting on a quilt that I had intended to have finished by now. The actual hand quilting is the part I really enjoy but to get to that part I have to do a lot of other work that I find less fun. But anyway, it's started and having started it I'm suddenly excited again about other quilts that I want to make.
I finished reading Bleak House this morning! I very rarely give up on reading a book once I've started and my experience with Bleak House confirms my feeling that it is not "a waste of time" to stubbornly finish a book "no matter what." I seriously started thinking about quitting when I was about a quarter to a third of the way into it but by the time I was halfway through it started to get interesting and I started to care about some of the characters. Others not so much.
I don't recall ever reading a novel with so many annoying characters, so many individuals to whom I wanted to give a severe tongue lashing. But the thing that made it hard to get into at first was that everyone used so many words to say the simplest little things. What you or I could say in one or two sentences took up one or two pages in this book. Everyone was so wordy. Generally, I like wordiness in novels; I like big books, I cannot lie (sorry, not sorry) but dialog is different. When someone has something to say I want them to just come out and say it plainly, without two or three pages of preamble.
I am glad I read it. Parts of it were sad and some of those parts made me feel like, "That's not fair! but that's like real life. A lot of it is not fair. And it wasn't all sad. For the most part it was a very good ending.
The baby elephant chasing the birds then falling down and running to mom is so like a human toddler and yes I know that's anthropocentric but I am human so it's the only perspective I have.
I kind of hate that I neglect this blog so much now. I especially regret that I neglect to read other blogs. I used to enjoy this whole routine but I'm enjoying the other things I've been doing instead - reading, (a lot) sewing (not as much as I want to in terms of getting things done) and... um... Twitter. I find it to be a really convenient means of interacting with people online. I use my phone and my phone's always in my pocket so I can pull it out anytime I have a moment and often that moment turns into half an hour. So anyway, if you want to follow me I'm @uppityokie though, to be honest, I'm probably not that interesting. I mostly re-tweet stuff, including a lot of cat pictures.
I also have a sewing blog that I post on infrequently in case anyone's interested in that. I am almost done with a quilt top that I wish I would have finished early this past summer so I could use it now that quilt weather is upon us. And I have tons of other stuff I want to get done right now - several things for my granddaughter, another shirt for my husband (I have made several recently) and stuff for me too even though I really don't need more clothes. I need to get rid of a bunch of stuff to make room for the new stuff I'm making but there's really very little that I'm willing to sacrifice. I do wear it all, just some of it maybe not very often. But, though I don't need clothes, in terms of total number of garments I own, I do need more of certain things. This year I have decided more tunics and stretch pants. (I am stretch pants are awesome years old) I have some good fabric for tunics already but need to get some more of the good cotton spandex for pants. (BTW, for any British friends who might be reading this, by "pants" I mean "trousers." But you knew that, right?)
I have been wanting to comment about some of the things that are going on in the world. I've written whole blog posts in my head but just never get around to actually writing them. The world is such a freaking mess right now, sometimes I really want to start beating people over the head with a clue bat but, on the other hand, most of the time I feel strangely secure out here in my little sanctuary in the woods. It occurs to me fairly often that I'm really not but living scared all the time is just too tiring. Getting worked up over crap all the time is tiring. I guess some people don't have the ability to just ignore it all and live their lives but I don't have the ability to stay scared or outraged for long periods of time. I just can't. Maybe that's a failing but it does make life easier.
The leaves are just beginning to turn here. They have been late for the last two or three years. The peak of fall color used to come about the second week of October, sometimes earlier, sometimes later but now it's not until November. It's time for this video that I post just about every year. My favorite piece of autumn music with some beautiful autumn scenery.
