An idea for a craft

So, I had an idea for a craft today. A rag rug.

I did a bit of research on it, and generally they were made pretty much any way that people wanted, so I feel that my idea is probably sound.

The plan I have is pretty straightforward, but labour intensive. Here's the idea:

1. purchase 3 bolts of scrap fabric. I'm looking for cheap and light. I'm also hoping to find bolts with a minimum length of 1 meter.

2. render all three bolts into half inch strips.

3. sew all the strips from the bolts together to make a single, long strip of fabric. Repeat this for each of the bolts.

4. roll the strips into fabric balls.

5. stitch the ends of the three fabric strips together.

6. braid the three strips into one very long braid.

7. use the braid as if it were a very big piece of string or yarn to crochet a squared mat.

That's the plan. The efforts come from all of the cutting, sewing, braiding and crocheting work. It's basically four small crafts in one. With luck, the result will be something unique and interesting, and hopefully warm on the feet.

If I get a chance, I'll be looking for scrap fabric tomorrow.

Advantages of living alone

One advantage that struck me today about the prospect of having my own apartment, is that I will be the only person in charge of the food there. Groceries in any form will be entirely based on what I choose to purchase.

This is a good thing.

I have moved before, and at each move there's been some ability to set what food goes into the house. But it has never really been my own choices before (except Ohio). There's always been other people to consider.

In Ohio, I had full choice as well, and that worked fine for the first week or so, after which I no longer cooked and bought nothing as food aside from drinks and ice cream. So, bad on me there.

This time, I am hoping to stick to a much healthier food selection. I will have some drawbacks with certain kinds of food preparation, as I will not have an oven. Hopefully I can get a toaster oven or something similar to do any kind of baking/broiling.

I am considering living a less meat-centered diet. This would probably be a good thing for me, as meat is generally more expensive than vegetables and fruit.

Craft 2

Just finished a crochet hat. A variation on the basic 5-fold hat design done in the round. Done up as a beret, rather than as a regular helmet hat. Added a bit of flair on the bottom, just because I could. Wasn't sure who would end up with it, but it looks like B likes it, so it is hers.

Next project in mind is probably a scarf. I have a rough design in mind for it, though I may start on some leggings next. Had their design in mind for longer.

Apartment hunting

Living now in Germany requires that I register a residence. Where I am currently won't allow me to register. So I need an apartment. The prospect of hunting out an apartment is pretty daunting to me, since the Germans have a lot of rules about how things get done.

I searched out a number of cheaper student residences, but a lot of those are WG (Wohngemeinschafft), which means shared accommodations. While I'm sure I could deal with a shared accommodation, I really would rather not have to share with strangers. It would probably be good for communication and social life, but it also carries the penalties of having to deal with other people.

I searched out a couple of places, and went in today to see one. Tiny. Best I could say for it. I'm mentally comparing it to the place I had in Ohio. That too was a temporary living space, and consisted of a single room, with an attached bathroom. I paid about $600 per month for the privilege of living there.

The space I looked at (and will rent) is smaller. The bathroom is small, but serviceable, and the apartment as a whole takes up no more room than the bedroom I have now. Still, I need a location to use as an address for official correspondance, and also for other official business. Plus, an area away from the distractions of family will do me good when it comes to studies.

Given the size of the space, a TV is out of the question. I simply do not have room for such a thing. Assuming I can locate some internet connection, I should be fine for entertainment. If not, I may need to start figuring out ways to entertain myself that don't involve a computer.

Book 0: Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen

This is a book I have read before. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (alternately titled "and the Sorceror's Stone in the USA). This was the German translation.

I have been reading this book for a long time. A very long time. I picked the book up last summer, and have been making slow progress through it since then. It has been my book that I read on the train here in Germany.

In English, I can read pretty quickly. In German, my reading pace is considerably slower. As a quick comparison the internet tells me that animal farm has a bit under 31,000 words. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone comes in at just under 77,000 (the English edition).

I read Animal Farm in 1.5 hours (that's 344 words per minute).

And I read the English version of Harry Potter in about 2.5 hours.

The German version has taken me months. Admittedly, this is in tiny bursts of 20 minutes at a time. Still, tonight I managed to devote about 1.5 hours of time to reading the last 35 pages of the book. That's a pace that is a third to a quarter that of my English reading rate. Surprisingly, that's lots faster than it was just a few months ago. I'd have been lucky to do even 10 pages in the same amount of time.

I don't have much of a review of the book here. It's Harry Potter. If you accept that magic is possible, and all that goes with it, then the book is a reasonable read, with several major flaws in logic along the way.

If you haven't read the book, then spoilers follow.

The first major complaint I have is with the sport of Quidditch. Not the field, nor the flying, nor even the many balls. My issue is with the scoring. 10 points per quaffle goal is fine. It would be the same as saying that each goal is only 1 point, however, since it's part of the game I agree with. My major disagreement is with the scoring for the snitch. 150 points? For a single ball? Yes, I get that it is supposed to be very difficult to manage. And I get that it is also the signal for the game to end. But to me, the point swing possible with that ball is too great. It means that the only way for the non-snitch-catching team to win, is to be ahead by 16 regular goals.

Given the way the game is otherwise described, I'm hard pressed to imagine a situation where this is possible, short of one team being dead, except for the Snatcher. A more reasonable scoring of say, 15, or 25 points would make the game far more balanced. As it is, the game could, in theory, be won 150 to 0. Which seems like a rather large point spread.

My other complaint has to do with the structuring of the pacing of the book. Yes, the books events happen over the full course of the regular school year. But, they don't need to. There's no reason for Quirrell to wait until the end of the year. He had every bit as much opportunity to take action at the start of the year as he did later in the year. Especially considering the possible use of the Avada Kedavra to get past Fluffy (unless such a curse would be ineffective on something his size).

As well, given the events of later books, it seems to me like Dumbledore is doing things rather stupidly towards the end. When he's called away to London, he decides to go by broomstick. A method of travel he never uses again. Thereafter, in all the books, he travels by some method of instant teleportation. Disapparation, Port Key, or Flue. There's just no need for him to fly anywhere by broom. And even less reason for him not to be able to instantly return to just outside the grounds of the school (or as the final book shows us, to be able to Disapparate directly onto the school grounds - a perk of being headmaster).

Broom flying seems to be a strictly novice way to get around. Especially given the magical ability of the old man.

Anyway, the complaints with the book I can overlook (except for Quidditch, which just irks me). I like the book, I like the setting, I like the characters (at least until hormone-stupid syndrome strikes them). I will probably pick up the next book in the series in German and see how long it takes me to chew through the longer text of that volume.

Book 1: Animal Farm

Amongst the varied goals of Big, Fun, Scary 2011 is to read more. I feel that a read a reasonable amount, but I could certainly read more. Especially in German. Thus, I have set a rather lofty goal to read 100 books this year. I am only counting something as a book if it has more pages of text than illustration, so manga, comics and other such works will not count. I still expect to read a good number of those.

The first book I'm managed to read cover to cover this year is Animal Farm, by George Orwell. The last time I read this book was in high school, as an assignment. The copy I read is English, borrowed from the local library.

I can say that the main reason I borrowed the book is so that I could finally have something to write about for the reading portion of BFS. The book is short. So short that I read the entire thing in under 90 minutes, including a brief break.

I've found that people either love or hate George Orwell. Most of that has to do with whether they discovered him on their own or were forced to read something of his as part of their schooling. Personally, I find him to be a decent writer, but also a bit heavy handed. His use of metaphor in all of the writings I've read of him come back around to the topics of war, imperialism and the oppression of the idiot masses. These are things I can understand, but don't relate to completely. I suppose that makes the book somewhat less meaningful for me, but I'm not bothered by that fact.

The book is, more or less, as I remember. Brief, with an initially large cast of characters that basically dwindles down to rather few characters in short order. The story loses almost all sense of dialogue during the middle portion, and becomes little more than a retelling of history of an emerging oppressive regime than anything else.

There are clear allegories to real-world politics, and had I been alive at the time when the book was being written, I might be able to place country labels on the various farms and individuals in the book. It holds up to some scrutiny today, which suggests that nothing has really changed in politics.

Overall, a very quick read, and classic Orwell. I prefer 1984 over Animal Farm. Both books cover pretty much the same topic, but from a slightly different viewpoint, and with a more relateable character in 1984.

Craft 0 and Craft 1

Crafting is one of the Big, Fun, Scary activities for this year.

Craft 0 is the project I was last working on before the new year. I had hoped to finish it before the first, but that got held up by other things in life. So, when it is finished, it will count as Craft 0. It is a crocheted pair of arm warmers for my oldest daughter. Right now, the craft sits at about 85% completed. I expect that it needs around 3 or 4 more hours of effort before it is done - possibly more since the yarn and needle combination has been more difficult than expected.

Craft 1 is a sewn skirt, being put together by me, for B. The skirt is entirely my design, with inspiration from a lot of places. It's a five-panel skirt, with a waistline piece on top. While I've technically been sewing for more than 20 years, I have to say that I really don't have much experience with it. So, I'm trying to keep things simple. At least as simple as designing a piece of clothing, laying out the design and then sewing it into something wearable can be.

Craft 1 is about 85% complete as well, but needs some heavy modification to make it wearable. While I had done some calculation to make it fit, it seems to have grown somewhat in the making. I do tend to put in a lot of excess when I sew. That's something I'll have to work on. The current need is to put a zipper into it. I had bought a zipper for it when I had originally made it, but it has gone missing. I will need to find a new one, and then sew it in. That means undoing a bunch of work on the skirt, but that's the price I pay for doing things the hard way.