The Wings Shawlette

Ever since I joined Ravelry there is one that constantly catches my eye: shawls. And I don't know if that is because I haven't made one yet or because everybody is making shawls, many of them!

So I decided to give it a try. I had a skein of yarn that I didn't know where/how to use, and wanted to improvise (again). So the wings shawlette was born.

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Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.
 

Douglas Adams

306/365 - 310/365

Knee warmers

A while back I mentioned that I had a small accident. Because of that I turned out to worry much more than usual about my knees. After having been told by my doctor that biking is almost forbidden for me, something which is pretty important since I bike everywhere, all the time, I decided to turn into protection-mode rather than forbid-mode. And this is what I came up with:

There's Someone In My Head, But It's Not Me

Your brain is built of cells called neurons and glia — hundreds of billions of them. Each one of these cells is as complicated as a city. And each one contains the entire human genome and traffics billions of molecules in intricate economies. Each cell sends electrical pulses to other cells, up to hundreds of times per second. If you represented each of these trillions and trillions of pulses in your brain by a single photon of light, the combined output would be blinding.

The cells are connected to one another in a network of such staggering complexity that it bankrupts human language and necessitates new strains of mathematics. A typical neuron makes about ten thousand connections to neighboring neurons. Given the billions of neurons, this means there are as many connections in a single cubic centimeter of brain tissue as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

The three-pound organ in your skull — with its pink consistency of Jell-o — is an alien kind of computational material. It is composed of miniaturized, self-configuring parts, and it vastly outstrips anything we've dreamt of building. So if you ever feel lazy or dull, take heart: you're the busiest, brightest thing on the planet. 
[...]

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 How we spend our days is, of course, 

how we spend our lives.
 

Annie Dillard

301/365 - 305/365

Stitches and Gems

I received a bag as a present a while ago and after a few days I realised it could work as a stitching canvas! So I thought of different combinations I could try with the holes available, and after some time I ended up with this:

The impact of motherhood on the lives of women: An analogy

Imagine you live in a world very similar to yours, except that there is a war that has been going on for centuries. The borders need to be protected against the Orks. As tradition dictates, this hard but honorable work is the realm of men and the epitome of manhood, and it has been like that for as long as society can remember. 

Recently, things have changed a little. The military service has become less dangerous, and almost no men die in service anymore. It has also become voluntary. Men are not automatically joining the army as soon as they come of age. They can delay it. As a result, the numbers of men studying at university has risen dramatically; universities used to be the realm of women until about 50 years ago. Still, most men eventually join the army, often giving up their ambitions, and men who don’t are viewed suspiciously.

If you sign up for service, this changes your life forever. You cannot un-sign. You need to spend about 20 years in the army, and while the first five years are the most intense, it also requires hard work afterwards. Not surprisingly, this compromises the ability of men to pursue careers. They usually have to take at least a year off at the beginning of service, often more, to concentrate on learning how to fight. They might work part-time later, but this, some say, diminishes the quality of their service. Studies have proven that this is not really the case, but a powerful prejudice survives. Women, therefore, still dominate the professional world and make careers, as it has been for centuries. ‘Women are better suited for careers, this is clear from their brain chemistry’, many say. ‘On the other hand, men are made for battle. This has been like this since the dawn of time. It is better to accept this fundamental fact of life.’

The impact of motherhood on the lives of women: An analogy
zinemin's random thoughts

The Disadvantages of an Elite Education

Found this very interesting article recently, that put into words some of my own thoughts and opinions about 'high' education, while at the same time giving a very insightful critic about Universities in the United States. Some things really have no borders.

But if you’re afraid to fail, you’re afraid to take risks, which begins to explain the final and most damning disadvantage of an elite education: that it is profoundly anti-intellectual. This will seem counter intuitive. Aren’t kids at elite schools the smartest ones around, at least in the narrow academic sense? Don’t they work harder than anyone else—indeed, harder than any previous generation? They are. They do. But being an intellectual is not the same as being smart. Being an intellectual means more than doing your homework.

The Disadvantages of an Elite Education
By William Deresiewicz

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 Time spent with cats is never wasted. 

 

Colette

296/365 - 300/365

New Arrivals

These couple of weeks I have been acting online on a whim (not a good thing!). The result, was some new purchases and new tools.

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I love deadlines. 

Especially the whooshing sound they make as they pass by.
 

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291/365 - 295/365

When procrastinating,

I do totally random things. Some of them include using my camera to take pictures like these:

Random states, random things, random times. There is even a very interesting essay, and a book based on the need for procrastination and how this can actually help you finish your tasks. So I guess I am also not very far from the author's description of a Procrastinator, although I think that I eventually push myself to to the tasks on top of the list. :\

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 We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, 

not by mechanical aid, 

but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

Henry David Thoreau

286/365 - 290/365