See you there! XD

P.S. If you want to link to me through your blogs, my new domain is on stitchesandmusings.co.cc. Thanks.

I didn’t expect my December to be totally busy, I’ve never been busy at this time of the year before. But I was wrong, Engineering Week 2009 took all my time and strength. We had a blast, we managed to win a lot of events (some totally unexpected), and we were able to retain our yearly ranking. It was stressful. It was tiring. It was fun. It was worth it. And I’m happy to say that for once in my life, I’ve worked hard to accomplish a goal while enjoying every minute of it. I could finally say, that for once, I haven’t been selfish but all the more selfless. Maybe too selfless, I don’t care.

All the drama and stuff ends here. LOL.

After a day of sleeping off all the Eng’g Week 09 tiredness, I went back to crafting… finally!

I have no plans of doing any Christmas gifts anymore because my mom bought me stuff that I could give as gifts to my friends! Yey! XD So all of the things that I’m doing now are for me, myself, and I. I’m thinking of it as a reward to myself, because I’ve been very active both in my academic and extra-curricular life. XD

I’ve finished working on a Beaded Beret and a shrug that I call as ‘Wisp-to-Shrug’ or something like that (I’m turning the wisp into a shrug, finished the wisp part but the to-Shrug part is still in the works). I’m now working on a scarf then will later on work dishcloths (maybe) for our kitchen and a lot more. I plan on dequeue-ing my queue. As for photos, I can’t share them yet, since my projects are not yet finished. Ahaha.

And with crafting marathon comes movie/tv show marathon galore:

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Edition (a staple!)

The Princess Bride

You’re Beautiful / Minami Shineyo

(I absolutely fangirl-ed over this last month, this is the 4th time I’m watching it again.)

and last but not the least, some Austen love.

Pride and Prejudice

Sense and Sensibility

Emma

Mansfield Park

Persuasion

and

Clueless ( RIP Brittany Murphy)

Posted in Academic Life Stuff, Crochet, Kdrama, Knitting, Marathons, TV/Movies, WIP's ]]> http://iheartcrochet.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/update/feed/ 0 zammy http://iheartcrochet.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/vacation/ http://iheartcrochet.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/vacation/#comments Sun, 13 Dec 2009 03:23:23 +0000 zammy http://iheartcrochet.wordpress.com/?p=244 ]]> I’ve been gone. I haven’t been doing anything craft-related for the past two months… because of this:

This is why we should learn how to vote RIGHT.

How Twilight Works

A few weeks ago I had the miserable experience of reading Twilight. A friend bought it for me and I took it with me to read on a long flight from Seattle to Houston. I knew it was going to be crappy, but I thought it would be a guilty pleasure kind of crappy – where you know it’s bad but you still get enjoyment out of it. I actually managed to power through around 400 pages until I gave up and started reading Sky Mall. I’ve been seeing Twilight everywhere lately, especially with Vampire Teens II New Moon’s release, so I thought I’d break down why chicks go apeshit for it.

First off, the author creates a main character which is an empty shell. Her appearance isn’t described in detail; that way, any female can slip into it and easily fantasize about being this person. I read 400 pages of that book and barely had any idea of what the main character looked like; as far as I was concerned she was a giant Lego brick. Appearance aside, her personality is portrayed as insecure, fumbling, and awkward – a combination anyone who ever went through puberty can relate to. By creating this “empty shell,” the character becomes less of a person and more of something a female reader can put on and wear. Because I forgot her name (I think it was Barbara or Brando or something like that), I’m going to refer to her as “Pants” from here on out.

So after a few chapters of listening to Pants whine about high school, sucking at volleyball, and being the center of attention, the second major character is introduced. Imagine everything women want in a man, then exaggerate it by ten thousand – and you’ve got Edward Cullen. The level of detail that the author goes into while describing Edward’s appearance is remarkable. At one point while reading I started counting the number of times the author used the expression “Edward’s perfect face,” and it was far into the double digits. The author excruciatingly details his muscular pecs, clothing, hair, eye color – even his goddamn breath (I’m not joking).

Edward intensely listens to everything Pants has to say, even if she’s bitching about she had diarrhea on Christmas or her preferred method for cutting a sandwich in half. As far as the reader is concerned, Edward cares about nothing in the world more than Pants. What the author has done is created a perfect male figure – a pale Greek statue which the reader can worship and in turn be worshipped by.

So what about men that like Twilight?
If you’re male and you like Twilight, you’re gay. I don’t mean that in the derogatory sense, I mean it in the “you want to put your testicles against another man’s testicles while gripping handfuls of chesthair” kind of way.

And the movie?
The movie is just the same uninspired crap shat out onto a film reel. If you like the taste of horse manure on your bologna sandwiches, you’re probably gonna like it on your birthday cake as well. The same principle applies with Twilight.

Beyond that, it’s just a romance novel with the occasional vampire teen drama bullshit peppered here and there. It doesn’t really break any new ground in the realm of vampire fiction, other than portraying vampires as a family of uncomfortable retards who prance around the woods eating deer and bunny rabbits. There’s lots of nervous lip-biting, tender kisses between Pants and Edward, and lengthy descriptions of every feature of Edward’s body. Pants is a static character who never really progresses beyond being an insecure vampire fangirl who obsesses over Edward. Whether her character grows beyond that is unknown to me, I’d stopped reading by then and shifted my attention to an electric butt-massaging chair in Sky Mall.

——-
I’d have to agree that the Twilight ( or any other book in the so-called Twilight Saga) is not a guilty pleasure kind of book. It is crappy beyond doubt and there seems to be no moral whatsoever in any of it. Twilight lovers might kill me for this but it is true. I’m really sad that poor crappy writing like this could even be considered as literature. It feels so fan fiction-ish, and even just saying this makes me feel bad because most fan fiction are better written than this.

Introducing Web2Mobile

One program that we ran last April was the Globe Labs Summer of Code program. 16 students from Ateneo, DLSU, UP and SLU worked on different applications for Globe Labs. The UP team, composed of Olive Ruth Dag and J. Allen Santos, was tasked to develop an add-on for Firefox that would be able to send text messages and MMS. Roughly one and a half months later, Olive and J. Allen showed the Globe Labs team the result. We were in awe with what these two kids were able to produce in such a short time frame. Today, we’re introducing that amazing application to the world –Web2Mobile.

Web2Mobile is a Firefox add-on you install on your Firefox web browser. Once installed, it allows you to send text messages and MMS without leaving the browser window. The main benefit here is that you no longer need to pick up your phone or type using a small phone keyboard when sending out text messages – you can do it all in the comfort of your computer! Now if only the features ended with that, it would have been a great application already. However, the UP team brought it further by introducing killer features:

1. Select a text from any web page and send it as an SMS – Just highlight any text on the web page you’re looking at, right-click, and then hit Send. Now, there’s no need to retype interesting pieces of information you find on the internet!
2. Send any image, photo or picture from any web page and send it as an SMS – Frankly we think that this feature revolutionizes the way we send out MMS. No longer are we limited to the pictures that we take using our phone cameras, or those images that we download via our phones. Now, any image on the internet can be sent to your phone. Just right-click on the image and hit Send.

That’s enough talking. Try out the Web2Mobile add-on yourself. Click on the link below to download the add-on to your computer. Then drag the file to your Firefox window to install it.

Via Globe Labs Blog.

Thanks for making our lives as crappy as hell.

Thanks for giving us something to lament about on Christmas season.

Thanks for giving us an opportunity to learn something different when it comes to choral singing.

Thanks for making this year’s Awitan competition unforgettable. I feel bad for the audience already… I can’t even bear to finish listening to this crappy contest piece, let alone ‘sing’ it… but the audience will have to bear with this song 12 times…. gahd. Thank you, whoever crappy songwriter you are.

Adding beads and sequins

It is easy to incorporate beads and sequins into crochet fabrics. Any type of beads and sequins can be used, provided that the central hole is large enough for the yarn to pass through.

1. Thread a sewing needle with a short length of sewing cotton and knot the ends. Pass the yarn through the loop made. Slide each bead or sequin into the needle, then down the sewing cotton and onto the yarn. Pull the yarn through and continue threading on beads or sequins in this way.

Photo taken here.

2. When indicated in the pattern, push a bead or sequin up the yarn to sit just below the crochet hook. Work the next stitch as instructed leaving the bead or sequin at the front of the work.

My parents gave me an early Christmas present! So I made this cute little cozy for my new iPod Touch while I’m saving up for this awesome leather case I saw in a stall in Megamall two weeks ago. We went there to get my Vaio fixed and there’s this stall with beautiful iTouch leather cases!

The pattern I used was really simple and easy to make. It took up around 2 hours to finish. I used a smaller hook and thinner yarn so I made more stitches and more rows… Haha. Instead of attaching a snap, I made the flap long enough so I could tuck it inside. I love how it turned out, it’s so pretty XD

I’m starting on another blue-ish object. Haha. It’s the Beaded Beret from my crochet book, Easy Beaded Crochet by Carol Meldrum. I fell in love with this pattern the first time I saw it and immediately bought the beads needed for the project. I had a hard time looking for the right yarn for this project. It’s been on my mind for a few months already so when I saw this light/pale Baguio yarn for sale in Lorie’s site… I just couldn’t stop myself from buying it cause I really wanted to do this project.

I’m just starting on it but it’s really fun to make.