I made a hat

But I haven't taken a picture of it yet.

So here's one that I found online (courtesy of Brooke's email link to this site)



What do you think? Maybe in red for GalaxySpaceCat?

As Mel says: Happy Monday!!

Girl got skillz.

When you hear that, you can rest assured that they are - whoever these mysterious they are - talking about me.

I'm sitting here, not grading (though I should be...) knitting AND blogging AND thinking about martial arts. I'm like a flying-spinning side-kick to the purl stitch through the back loop. Rock it.

I've been feeling marvelously peaceful lately. Work hasn't really slowed down, and if it weren't for that darn printer yesterday, this week, though busy (duh) might have floated on by like...like... a drop-stitch scarf on the stream. Or something. Huh, what?

I've got friends. I've got LOST* tonight. I had our Bible-study small group on Sunday, with spaghetti and meatballs and fellowship and everything. I know that God is answering my prayers in quiet, surprising ways, and I know that writing is my calling. I can feel it calling (shouting) at me, even in my sleep. Maybe that's God, too.

But see, here's the thing: I love teaching. All the way and wholeheartedly. Yet...always yet! I'm learning that it's almost impossible to do both, unless I'm old and gray with a PhD under my belt - after my name - somewhere, anyway.

So, there's that to think about this week.

But there's also this, for the "Pirate Party" in VA this weekend:

and this (for the same reason):

(see? Half-bird, half-woman, all totally hot. Well, tempting unto the rocks of death for the Greeks, anyway).

And the almost-done-but-not-quite scarf for my sister-in-law. Hence, the simultaneous blog-knit. This particular b-day gift might turn into a Christmas gift...

Happy Halloween!

~~~~

*Does anyone else have the strange urge to correct that phrase to "I've gotten lost tonight."? Dratted grammar indoctrination.

New Book Review up on ktg words

See the sidebar for the book review on Good Omens.

Also. I'll post something soon.

Wheee!

Stop in the name of Newton's First Law of Motion!

Wanna hear something really, really cool?

...


I am SO BORED.

As in, I am sitting here, in my office chair, with absolutely nothing to do for almost two whole hours.

Isn't that WONDERFUL?!?! Whhheeeeehahahahahaha!

(if you think this post is ironic, you are so out of the loop.)

In the words of the inimitable Hoops & YoYo: "Happy sunny day! Happy sunny day!"

I think I'm gonna go sit still for a while.*



~~~~~~~~~~
*"why not blog, while you've got the time?" you might ask. . . . . . I think I'll save that for later. Because I can! Mwuahahahahahaha! Power! I have the power!**


~~~~~
** okay, no more maniacal laughter. I go relax now. Bye-bye!

September, what?

Wait, wait, wait.

It's what date? September 11th? I don't want to post about that since everyone is going to post about that. **

insert your own...
- remembrances - anger - bitterness - sorrow - politics - pictures - songs - poems - lists of lost -

I know my feelings on this. You know them too: you experienced / are experiencing them today, we all have been. for 5 years.

5 years. Sheesh.

I won't tell you to "Never Forget" and put up a horrifying picture of the devastation in NY. I won't play a patriotic tune and tell you that you need to march forth to prove your inner staunchness. I won't tell you that I spent all morning weeping as I remembered that day. That's not what grieving is about.

Listen to something lovely and aching today. Look into the air as an airplane passes over and pray a little. Hold someone's hand. Laugh and be joyful all by yourself. You can. It's allowed. Go to a memorial service and make congregational reponses. Stare into space. Sing a sad little song that hurts your heart. Write an essay. Write a letter. Talk. Be silent.

You can look at a flag drifting on the wind at half-mast and know peace. It's not sacriledge. You are also allowed to feel fury. Emptiness. Patriotism. Frustration. Today's the day we remember. Tomorrow's the day we keep going, as we always have. As we must.

So, mourn in your own way, as I'll do in mine. I'll also be with you, if you need it. Today and tomorrow and on.

Does this sound bitter? Distant? I hope not - that's not what I intend. Encouraging, if anything. Be well, all.

-ktg

~~~~~~
Oh. I just did post, didn't I? Ah me. I might as well say, "I am speechless." Like will ever happen.

Revelations of Cosmic Import.

Sci-fi geeks and NASA scientists punched the air and possibly did a little moonwalk across their living rooms when this news burst onto the scene yesterday.

Oh yeah. And you thought we were nuts. Ha!

Go here for more background info on all the excitement. Don't you just love it when a possibility becomes a reality?

Why is this important, then? Ever heard of the "Big Bang"? Yeah, well, dark matter is another piece in the puzzle that, once completed (if ever, really) will explain the origin of the universe (see "Big Bang nucleosynthesis"). I'd say that's rather significant. Also, it's really, really cool. It supposedly shifts galaxy orbits and velocities... the reason the universe moves around, spins, expands.

But what is it, really? Is it, as Stephen Baxter in Vacuum Diagrams proposes, evidence for life in another form? Access to another dimension? Ooh ooh, the possibilities, as always, are infinite.

Oh, Happy Day!

Peek-a-Boo!

See that? Up there? Yeah, that's me lately. Running around so fast, so hither-thither, I'm not even a blur; I may have actually traveled through the brane of the universe, on a singularity, bent around a quantum function, crossing over the fold in space-time on a cosmic string...

Okay, soooooo... too much hard SF lately (although I'll probably post a review of Stephen Baxter's Vacuum Diagrams here in a bit) and not enough Buffy. Oh, wait. How about: not enough Spike TV. No, um, hold on. ...come on, Karen, think of something normal, possibly even girly or something... Yeah, like, not enough Project Runway, and stuff. (Anita, I am definitely teasing. Please do not wrap me up in too-tight white pants and frowzy silver lamé blouse! You were right about the Pam Grier, though. So awesome!)

Ya'll want an update or something?

Well, here's where I'll be working this fall (click weekday links for location):

Monday , Wednesday , Friday

• ENGL 1101 (2 courses)
• ENGL 1102 (1 course, M & W only)

Tuesday , Thursday

• ENGL 1101

And wherever else I can find work for the remaining 20 hours of my week.

So, yes, I did get a job (or 2), and though not exactly the position I wanted (the full-time gig at GSC), I now have some good stuffs to add to the old curriculum vitae. I also have a lead on a weekend spot with another company for a few weeks in the fall that will add some cash to the budget. It's going to be a long, hard, haul, but I have faith that I'm being looked after. It's funny - lately it seems as ifGodd has been sort of having a good time with me, as if he's just wanting to point out, again and again, that I'll be taken care of, no matter how fearful I am.

I mean, He sent me my dearest friends. And, actually, that's the topic that I wanted to post on today. Friendship. I sometimes sit back in completely wonderment at the abundance of good people in my life. It's almostunbelievablee that I could be so lucky as to have such... outstanding? amazing? phenomenal? friends around me. One friend helps me paint my living room into the wee hours, never complaining a single time as I demand that she fill in the holes in the wall with extra paint and be extra careful not to get any on the baseboards, since I force her to do the dreadful "detail work" at the edges of the walls. Then she grins and invites me to lunch the very next day. And that's only one day - her kindnesses, both the small and the gigantic, happen every day, in unnumbered ways.

Another buys me lunch because she wants to spend time with me. Did you get that? She buys me lunch just so that we can hang out. Then she gets me a job for a bit of extra moolah, we work together for eight hours, and she STILL wants me to sit with her at her house to watch an episode of Deadwood that she's already seen. She even poured me a glass of Diet Cherry Coke and brought it to my lazy-butt-self on the couch. Girl is so tired she passes out on the other couch as I make loud comments and shouts of surprise during the show, completely disregarding her poor sleepy self. Yet another friend just makes my day happy with an extra beef enchilada and hours of good talking. Not to mention, of course, miles of bookshelves and bowtie festival pasta. They help me calm down when I have a job/money/men/schedule freakout (prior to the exciting news mentioned above). Another, going out for super-cheap sushi, talking about the former / sometimes men we can't seem to extricate from, laughing out loud and listening close, and just letting me know she wants to spend some time.

Friends who lend you grocery money. Give you mattresses and appliances. Get you a job.

Friends that want to see you because they want to see you. Not to get anything, not to take care of you. Just to hang out, be together, laugh, all that.

It's funny: I've written on this topic before, in rather a different vein, but I'll reiterate here. I've spent most of my life believing that I'm not very good at being friends with women, but I've learned that some of the most important relationships in my life are with these women that have come into my life in the past few years. I just hope that I can be as good a friend to them as they are to me. It'll definitely take some work - they really do take care of me in the most astounding ways.

I am the luckiest girl in the world. (a bit gushy - I knew I'd get around to being girly.)*

And... I'm BACK!

~~~~~~~~~~~
* No, this blog did not suddenly morph into the We Channel. Geek-girl-super-sonic-knit-kicking will be back soon.