kerravonsen: Church steeple silhuetted against clouds: "How can I keep from singing?" (singing)

Just had an interesting conversation with a couple of women who knocked on my door claiming to be "theological students" "practising a presentation". I put those in quotes because I now think that they weren't... well, technically you could argue that they were, in the sense that all those who read the Bible are studying the Bible and thus are "students". Really, I think they were doing what Evangelicals call "witnessing": going up to random strangers and trying to persuade them to change their beliefs. The clincher for this was when they started trying to persuade me to come to their church (the church opposite the McDonalds on Blackburn Road, which I think they said was a "Church of Christ" but I'm not entirely sure). But that wasn't until later on in the conversation. Darn it, I just realised that I should have encouraged rather than discouraged them from coming back. Why? Because they need to be rescued from what sounds like (to me) a rather unhealthy church. Oh well. I guess all I can do now is pray for them, poor lambs.

what they actually said )

kerravonsen: rainbow sparkles: "Squee!" (squee!)
Solar electricity, that is.

The friendly workmen finished installing it yesterday. Now I have 18 panels on my roof, three new boxes in the garage (the inverter, the gateway, and the battery) and a new app on my phone. The app is the Tesla Powerwall app (the battery) which not only shows the status of the battery (charging, discharging, % full) but also the way the power is flowing between the solar, the battery, the grid, and my house. It is SO COOL! Right this minute, with the lovely blazing winter sun, the solar is generating 3.4kW, the house is using 0.7kW, and the battery is being charged with the rest. Squee! Whee! (dances a virtual sun-dance)

Even if I don't generate enough to put it back into the grid (and thus be paid for it), it does look as if I will be pretty close to self-sustaining, at least on sunny days. Because the battery charges during the day, I'll be using it at night instead of taking power from the grid. I'll have to look at the pattern of it, how long it takes to fill the battery completely -- it's currently at 44%, the time is twenty minutes past noon, and it's wintertime, so the light will be fading around 5pm, so I don't think it will fill up completely today, and then it's going to be being drained tonight, but I don't know if it will be drained completely... as I said, I'm going to have to observe the pattern of it. Which of course will also vary depending on the weather.

But it is SO COOL!
kerravonsen: Jenna: "in space no one hears you complain about the weather" (weather)
I've only managed to settle on two names for my latest round of paintings, y'all can go and look.

The weather here has decided that it is winter and not autumn. Brrrr. I don't think Australian houses tend to be built for the winter, they are all built for the summer, which does kind of make sense since our summers are EXTREME while our winters are mild in comparison to elsewhere. Though one wishes they could build our houses for both ends of the seasonal year...
Ah well.

This week I am having a sanity break, but I don't know what to dooooooo. It's too cold to go out and commune with nature, which would have been a nice peaceful thing to do. And it is EXTREMELY difficult to get away from work when one's workplace is... one's home. Which is the reason I need a sanity break in the first place.

Well, I just finished playing a solo game of Pandemic, which was nicely relaxing. Discovered that the roles of Researcher and the Operations Expert make a dynamic combination -- in one turn, the OE took needed cards from the Researcher, built a research station exactly where they were, and cured a disease. Yay.
kerravonsen: Eighth Doctor: Like Chocolate (Doc8-chocolate)

The other day, when I was catching a bus somewhere, the bus driver asked me, admiringly, "How do you keep your hair looking so good?"

I gave my usual answer: "I don't cut it."

The bus driver said "If my hair was that long, it would be out like this!" gesturing as if frizzy hair was sticking out like it was an Afro.

I smiled and got off the bus.

It wasn't until later that I realised that the bus driver hadn't been asking the usual question "How do you grow your hair so long?" (answer: I don't cut it. Plus genetics.) He had been asking about how I looked after my hair, not how I grew it. And it's been niggling at me ever since, that I didn't give him the right answer. So I've got to tell someone or it will drive me mad. So guess what? It is you folks. (grin) go away if you find hair boring )

So that's what I do.

kerravonsen: Jo Grant smiling and holding up set of keys: "not a dumb blonde" (Jo Grant)
So I got an email saying my glasses were ready, so I changed my plans for the day, and went out to pick them up.
cut for picture )
So, these have progressive lenses, which will take a bit of getting used to. Not to mention getting used to a new prescription generally can be a bit dizzying. When I got home I had to move my monitor lower (as ordered by the occulist) and I ended up having to reboot the computer because some vital things got disconnected in the process. But it's humming away fine now.

My feet are a bit sore because I'm still breaking in my new sandals, and I was wandering around the shopping square for a bit, doing a few other errands as well.
kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (genius-at-work)
Besides procrastinating by making a bracelet, I actually did do some sorting and moving and preparing-of-stuff-to-be-thrown-out. The alcove near the fireplace now has the table-thing which was in the front hall, with two sets of plastic drawers underneath it. This is a much better situation than the drawers had been in before, where they had been in the far corner of the lounge with a plank on top of them, and that plank was piled high with boxes. I noticed as I was moving them, that the top parts of the drawers had bent, probably due to the plank. Oops. Well, now they're under the table-thing, there is no pressure being put on them. I'm calling it a "table-thing" because it isn't a table, and it isn't a desk, and I'm sure there's a proper name for it, but I can't remember what it is. It's more like a desk than a table, really.

Read more... )
kerravonsen: Vila, worried, Avon, both looking off to the right: "We're lost, aren't we?" (lost)

I have STUFF. It accumulates. Being a frugal, responsible person, I kept a lot of it because "it might be useful" or "somebody else might find it useful" or "I could give it away on Freecycle" or "I could sell it on Ebay". And I did none of the above. None.

The effort and stress of listing something on Ebay has obviously been too great for me to summon up the energy to do. Likewise for Freecycle. This gives me much guilt, because putting things into landfill when they could be recycled is BAD. BAD KA! BAD BAD BAD! I have thus been caught between feeling guilty if I threw it away, and feeling stressed if I didn't. Because Stuff Taking Up Space is getting to really stressful levels for me. I have all these craft materials! I need to put them somewhere! I'm running out of space!

I have finally said "enough!" (or "too much", really). Forget Ebay. Forget Freecycle. Forget them all. One phone call, and I have booked a Hard Rubbish collection. My hope is that people round about will take at least some things off the pile before it gets collected by the Local Council. Shove my guilt, the stress has just gotten TOO MUCH. Stuff it!

So. Hard rubbish. Today I've been going around the house gathering stuff and clearing away stuff. Hopefully my nephew will help me tomorrow to put heavy things outside on the kerb.

Read more... )

It will be good to get rid of it all.

kerravonsen: Fiction/Poetry/Art: it's cheaper than therapy (cheaper-than-therapy)
This morning, at a bit after eight, my front door bell rang. There was a parcel at the door (and a van driving away). So I brought the parcel in, and opened it. Aha! The knitting machine I had bought on Ebay! I unboxed it, assembled it, picked up the pinkish-purplish yarn that came with it, pulled up a browser window on Youtube and...

...Eight hours later...

I can haz one fingerless glove!
Using these instructions.
It is imperfect and uneven, but it does keep my hand warm. I made at least 6 attempts before I got all the way through the instructions without making an egregious mistake. (And I gave up on doing the ribbing altogether)
And, yes, that is what I have been doing all day. I haven't even had lunch, now that I think of it. Oops.
Still, I have a fingerless glove.
Mind you, there isn't enough left of the pinkish-purplish yarn to make another, so it is forever doomed to be a solo glove. Ah well.

ETA: 20:09

...Three hours later...

I have another glove. This one was done with the blue yarn which came with the knitting machine.
This glove is longer, and I did the (ribbed) thumb and (ribbed) cuff with hook-knitting rather than on the machine, because I felt that it gave me more control. And the thumb on this one looks a lot tidier.

Oh, it's past dinner time, isn't it?
kerravonsen: Gregory House listening on earphones: "Listen" (listen)
I was going to say "happy songs" but they aren't just happy, they are songs which try to be encouraging. I'm pondering the nature of encouraging songs, and the different approaches they take. Some of them mean well, but end up being DIScouraging instead.

There are a whole pile of "encouraging" songs that I'm not going to list here, which I find more irritating than anything. They're the ones which declare that "you are special" and that all you have to do is just go for it and believe in yourself and everything will work out. No. To "believe in yourself" may be a necessary condition, but it is not sufficient. These songs can be downright discouraging, because they imply that success is as easy as snapping your fingers to summon the right attitude, and that after that, there won't be any problems. Far too naive and simplistic for me. Almost bordering on blame-the-victim, too; that if you don't succeed, there is something wrong with you because you weren't optimistic enough.

Read more... )

Stuff

Jan. 19th, 2017 11:02 pm
kerravonsen: Simon Illyan: "It's nearly a prosthetic memory, Miles. I'm thinking of chaining it to my belt." (prosthetic-memory)

Hello everyone!

So now I'm back from holidays and my family have scattered. I did stuff... played games - must get hold of a copy of Splendor, great game, simple rules but somehow rather addictive. Made things with resin - I have a rather large backlog of items I need to photograph.

And I got myself a smartphone. )

So there you have it.

Who of you has an Android smartphone, and what do you use it for? What are your favourite apps?

kerravonsen: "Seriousness is not a Virtue" (seriousness-not-a-virtue)
On a lighter note, my new gardener was doing my lawn this morning, riding on a motor-mower... dressed in a Santa suit. 8-)
kerravonsen: Hermione: "You won't like me when I'm angry" (angry)
Just got an email from the Peter the Possum Man people, for a "requested quote" which came to more than $1000. Apparently their so-called "six-month guarantee" only guarantees two visits, which I have now used up, less than three months after their first visit. Even though THEY DIDN'T DO THE JOB PROPERLY, they are asking me to pay them MORE money? No way.

I'm not paying them more. There's no proof that the second possum (a ringtail) is getting in (just indications that it might have tried to), and they've already put a wire mesh over the chimney so that no future possums will fall down the chimney.

If another possum does get in, I'm calling someone else. They aren't they only possum removalists in town.

I've got nothing against the guys who did the actual possum stuff, they were nice guys.

(sigh)
kerravonsen: Let sleeping possums lie - possum sleeping on top of bookcase (possum)

As I said in my previous entry, the possum has returned. When we last left our persistent possum, it was huddled inside the wardrobe of my study. Whenever I peeked in at it, it was not asleep. I'm not sure whether that was because my opening the door (squeaky hinges) woke it up, or because it was too uncomfortable and scared to relax enough to sleep. I'm fairly certain it didn't drink the water I left, because it appeared not to have moved. Perhaps it felt that its position on a half-fallen-over suitcase was too precarious for it to move.

I had, as I said, left a message with the possum man Frans, on his mobile. But I did not hear back from him. Fair enough, he could have been on holiday or out or something. The sun was going down, and I didn't want to leave the possum in the wardrobe overnight, for my sake, for its sake, and for the sake of the contents of the wardrobe. So I decided that if I hadn't heard from Frans by eight o'clock, I would have to evict the possum myself.

Eight o'clock rolled around. It was eviction time.

eviction time )

I still have no idea how the possum got in.

kerravonsen: Let sleeping possums lie - possum sleeping on top of bookcase (possum)
I woke up this morning to find a scene of somewhat chaos on the floor of my study. I mean, only slightly more chaotic, considering that there is the chaos of I-am-in-the-middle-of-decluttering, which includes a bunch of bags and stuff on the floor. But this was not chaos caused by me (and I haven't been writing in any magical diaries either). There was a big black box-lid on the floor, and a bunch of things fallen from the shelves onto the floor. At first I thought it was the Pancake Dalek (aka my Roomba) but it wasn't consistent with the kind of disturbance that robotic appliance causes: it wasn't a case of things pushed around from somewhere else, or things that were on the floor being knocked over, nor of something getting tangled in its bristles and being dragged. And I hadn't thought that the things I'd put on the shelves were that unbalanced or precarious that they would fall down on their own.

So I started tidying up, putting things back inside containers and onto the shelves. And when I picked up a laptop-protector bag to put it back at the bottom of the wardrobe... I saw It.
Read more... )
kerravonsen: Rose hanging onto rope: "Bronze medal in heroics" (Rose)
I had my suspicions yesterday, certain items disturbed, knocked over, but my brother dismissed them.
but... )
kerravonsen: (me)
Tetanus shot: check
Antibiotics: check
Pain killers: check
Medical certificate: check

Breaking

Sep. 24th, 2016 09:06 pm
kerravonsen: Simm!Master: "Mad, bad, and dangerous to know" (Master)
In brief (as typing slow/painful).
Possum: 1
KA: -1

Minus one soup-pot, that is. It broke in the struggle. Struggle between me and possum, which had again fallen into the kitchen cupboard from behind the oven. This time, however, I did not escape unscathed when I attempted to remove it; it scratched and bit me, and my hand is quite sore. And gouged.

Soup pot was pyrex, lay in glassy pieces on the floor. Possum ran into my bedroom. I opened the front door and hid in bathroom with band-aids, and I think the possum left at that point. Then I slowly and tearily cleaned up the mess. (sigh)
kerravonsen: Jack O'Neill writing a report: "It was a dark and stormy mission..." (Jack-mission)
Well, I just had a rather bizzarre experience.
Read more... )
kerravonsen: (me)
Saw an acquaintance in the lift this morning. I was admiring the colour of her top, a vivid blue.
She said it was a very Eighties colour, and started describing a dress she'd had in the eighties which was a similar colour, Electric Blue and black, with padded shoulders.
and there was a surprise )
kerravonsen: Crayons vs Despair - animated (despair)
In one word: Chill.
In three words: No voluntary deadlines.

In detail: I have decided that this year I will eschew anything which has a deadline, whether that be a fest, or making cosplay for Continuum in June, or making Christmas presents. I don't have to do any of those things, even if I feel pressure to. Even if the pressure I feel is purely from inside and not anything external. I don't have to. So I will try an experiment: I won't do them. NO DEADLINES.

Last year I was under pressure all year, trying to make Christmas presents for everybody, signing up for various fests (two of which I defaulted on, and one which I had to ask for an extension). I don't want to do that again. And I know it's easy to say "oh, just one more". So this year I will have a flat ban. I know that will disappoint some people who like seeing my stuff in fests. Don't worry, it isn't as if I won't be doing any creative stuff. I will be doing that; I just won't do them to deadlines. Time for my other un-deadlined unfinished projects. Time for playing around experimentally with crafts. Maybe even do a bit of writing? I've told my family that this year, everyone is getting One Salted Peanut for Christmas. Not that I would do that really, but I want to prevent myself from putting pressure on myself; far too easy for me to do. I have a THING about making handmade presents, have done since I was a teenager. I like making stuff to give away. Hey, maybe this year I'll make some stuff for myself! (What? Really?) It's been a while since I've done that. And it's not really as if I won't be making any presents at all -- some of those unfinished projects were for presents anyway. But still: no deadlines.

Note that this doesn't exclude things like NaArMaMo or PicoWriMo, because they aren't deadlines in the same kind of way; especially NaArt, because that's an event which encourages playing around and experimenting, which I do want to do. Play!

CHILL.

Secondary goal: read less fanfic and start tackling my huge unread-book pile. But not as a should. More as a change of scenery. (Currently reading "The Engines of God" by Jack McDevitt. Archaeology IN SPACE!)

(Current health status: still coughing and using up tissues at a great rate. Today I slept for most of the day, hopefully that did me good. Then again, I needed to, since I hadn't slept half the night before. (sigh))

(Still have not caught up on LJ and DW. Apologies to those people whose comments I have not yet replied to.)

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Kathryn A.

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