A picture of loveliness

The other day I was wearing an orange dress to work. The dress is rust orange jersey and has a v-neck with a big 70's collar, and cap sleeves. It's pretty awesome. I was wearing it with a red belt and red sandals.

I'm walking home from work and this 70 year-old man stops me on the street and says, "Can I tell you something?" I say, "um, sure?" And he says, "I just wanted to say that it's so wonderful to see a lady in a nice dress! All the time nowadays you see these ladies and they have on their dungarees -- and I mean, that's ok! They can have... if they want to wear it that's fine -- but everything in moderation, that's what I say! When I see a lady with a dress, I think, now that's what I want to see. Like in the old days, they always had nice dresses. And now it seems like maybe the young ladies are wearing dresses again, and I think it's just great."

As he was wrapping it up, he said, "and YOU my dear, are a picture of loveliness!" So he won me over in the end, needless to say.

This dress is a handmedown from my mom, who had a ton of awesome clothes back in the 70's, the types of things you cannot find anymore. Fortunately for me, a lot of this stuff fits me now, and since she has no plans to wear these things again I basically have free reign over anything from this era that I find in our closets at home.

I went a little crazy with this for a while, supplementing the handmedowns with stuff from thrift stores, the majority of which was made of 100% polyester and had prints that usually combined geometric shapes and floral patterns. I still have an impressive collection, which, if I sold it online, could probably buy me a pretty new computer with a nice big monitor or an impressively sized tattoo. But I should probably just cash it in for a new wardrobe, because the fact is that I cannot wear any of those things when I am actually going anywhere to do anything that is not totally climate controlled. 100% polyester is not suitable for supporting life. And as much as I hate to admit it, my wild and crazy days when I could wear whatever the fuck I wanted with no consequences are rapidly drawing to a close, causing me to rebel in more subtle and work-appropriate ways. Which makes the impressively sized tattoo (peeking out from under a v-neck sweater or pencil skirt) a little more appealing than a day at Macy's.

What's stopping me from selling it all is that I'm still basically the same person as I was, and so these objects have burrowed into my psyche and made themselves nice and comfy. It's hard to kick them out now. To sell the evidence of my teenage existence and to use the money for something so mundane as department store clothes.

But when I finally get my degree, this will be a rite of passage for me that should not go uncelebrated. I've worked for five-plus years on my own, taking care of myself, and I'm finally almost done. This is something I have to think about.

A product of my procrastination

While reading over some of my academic writing, I realized that sometimes I sound as though I'm consulting a magic eight ball with five or six transitional phrases. I keep repeating the same ones over and over, even when they're not entirely appropriate. "O, wise manuscript eight ball, which word should I use?" .... the little die in the purple liquid spins around and then lands on "Therefore" for the sixteenth time that day. So after some excellent googling and cross-referencing, I made this, and anyone who wants to use it is more than welcome. I'll update it if I think of any others

Apparently I learn nothing

...because despite the fact that the following words have left my mouth on more than one occasion: "I should not drink as much beer as Alex does at parties because then I feel like death the next day," guess what I did on the 4th of July?! That's right! There's something about when he says "I'm getting a beer --do you want one?" that I just can't say no to. I'm just a hopeless romantic I guess.

Although I did learn that fireworks WILL explode underwater. Someone is not going to have fun cleaning out their pool this week.

I have been writing from home this week, and I've completely lost all concept of time. I wrote a ridiculous amount today and then finally took a break to walk around outside, all bleary eyed from staring at my computer screen. Why am I staring at my computer still? I have no idea. They have some kind of power over me, those evil websites. I'm breaking the spell starting now.

Ten CCs of chocolate chip cookies, stat.

I just spent all day buried in data... and in the end I made ONE usable graph. In eight hours. FML. Seriously. I think I need a rootbeer float just to remind myself that there is something to live for. On the plus side, there is another manuscript that I might be first author of. On the downside, I think that if I have to read it one more time I might throw up all over my office, which would not be good for anyone. I'm putting it away and going home. We'll talk about this tomorrow, paper! You hear me? This isn't over. (I like to threaten my papers. It keeps them in line.) Want to hear about how behind the times I am? This month I am doing two things for the first time: a) learning to drive, and b) listening to podcasts. I haven't succumbed to twitter yet. But seriously, am I 70 years old or something? "Oooh, podcasts! Fun!" like they're new or something. "Well, I'm 27 now, I suppose I should do what high school students normally learn to do and go drive." I just never had to learn. It's embarrassing. Even more embarrassing will be when I drive into a telephone pole or a pedestrian. It's great too -- my first lesson is just far enough away that I can spend a week and a half working myself up into a nervous frenzy about it. I'm sure that'll really help. Well, anyway. You win some, you lose some. But speaking of winning some: my boyfriend is now embroidering. Yes, you read that correctly. The other day we sat on the couch and watched TV, and I was knitting, and he was embroidering a little bee onto a piece of fabric for an art piece. It was pretty cute. These are the times when I realize that somehow, against all odds, I managed to find a good one. Maybe I'll bake him some cookies tonight. On that note, it's out into the rain again.

Ok, crazy lady...

I recently made a purchase on amazon that included a pet fountain and eight pairs of underwear. Whoever was packing stuff to ship that day probably paused for a moment to consider my strange and sad life. Thankfully Banjo actually likes the fountain, which means that I don't need to add this to the list of things that I wasted money on for the cat. After repeated UTI's I would rather spend money on something that places me firmly in the category of "crazy cat lady" than risk having to clean pee off of my stuff again. It really makes you appreciate how perfectly evolved housecats are, when you find yourself lysol wiping every inch of your apartment and still stopping to get your camera when they take a nap in a particularly cute position. I swear it's a defense mechanism. Once, when I was a kid, my little brother wrote on the wallpaper with some crayons. However, my mom could not yell at him because he had written "I love Mommy". This just goes to show that my cat is as intelligent as a 4 year old boy. He has been using this strategy for years now. Perhaps this speaks very poorly of 4 year old boys. My cat also tries to eat packing tape...

Dear Massachusetts: Please stop sucking.

I love you. You know I do. I grew up here, and even when people bash you as being puritanical and stuffy, I stick up for you. When people complain about how bad the weather is, I remind them that it's really not that much better in other places. But seriously, this argument is getting harder and harder to make, when you insist on raining for the entire month of June. And not just rain, but gales and gusts, and downpours, and mists that make my umbrella useless (and turn it into a dangerous weapon, when the wind is blowing hard enough), and humid air that's still cold even though it makes me sweaty. I am tired of being damp. My boyfriend wishes you would fall into the ocean so that we would have an excuse to move to a sunnier climate. I vaguely remember something kind of yellow and bright that used to be up in the sky, but the memory is so foggy now (the humidity has seeped into my brain, it seems) that I can't even remind him of what that was like. I have lost all concept of time, since everything is an equal shade of gray, whether it is morning, afternoon, or evening. I find myself curling ever closer to desk lamps, like some kind of human beanstalk. 

Please. For the love of all that is holy. Stop raining. All of the vitamin D supplements in the world will not stop me from getting rickets at this rate. Is that really what you want? I'm short enough as it is and you know it.

I'm willing to forgive you this once if you admit that you were wrong. You have my number.

xo,

suzy

The "can I help you?" approach.

Alex went into both Windsor Button and Winmil Fabrics this weekend to get supplies for an art piece. I should specify: he went in to both of those places By Himself. He said he got some of the weirdest looks he's ever received from people. I told him, now you know how I feel when I go to metal shows. When I go to metal shows and don't take the trouble to change into all black clothing first. p.s. I learned that knitting with size 1 needles on the bus might be more frustration than it's worth. I also learned that there are a surprising number of potholes along my commute.

Rock Opera Gloves

I had made a pair of these for fun a while back, but just got around to making them again in order to write up the pattern. Last time I fudged the hand in order to get my knuckles to fit, but this time I put in a proper gusset, but stretched it upwards all the way to the middle knuckles. Really, you only need to make one of these, I think, because at an actual rock show, you'd probably need your other hand for holding your PBR. Even better for using up leftover yarn anyway. Pattern will be up soon!

Vendetta gloves....finished!

I finished both the "His" and "Hers" versions this weekend, and I'm formatting the pattern as we speak! Hopefully it'll be up on Ravelry by the end of the week. In the meantime, here are some pictures!

p.s. Like the paring knife? It cracks me up. Totally NOT threatening. But hey, these are based on Sweeney Todd so I had to have some kind of picture with some kind of sharpened weapon, right?! Believe it or not, this is the shiniest knife we have. Being vegetarians, we don't really need cleavers and such. Anyway, I'll update again when the pattern is ready to download!

You know what would be great?

If I had a little button on my desk at work that I could push, and out from the sides of my desk would spring two long spindley Dr.Seuss-like robot arms with little white gloves on the ends that would massage my temples when I have spent too many hours looking at tables full of numbers. Also, if there was another button, and a couple more robot arms that would make me an espresso, that would be killer. You could press these buttons whenever you have that "I'm all alone in the world" feeling that comes with realizing that you are the hardest working and simultaneously the lowest paid person on your little office totem pole. It's a totem pole that's kind of shaped like an upsidedown triangle, I think. It teeter-totters from side to side, but the bottom is always on the bottom. Meanwhile, if I were in a movie I'd be digging a hole in my office wall and covering it with a poster of Racquel Welch so no one would know. One of these days I'm busting out of this joint.

Vendetta Gloves in the works

I have two new patterns I've been working on lately. One is knit in Cascade Fixation sock yarn in eggplant -- I like this yarn so far. It's got a really nice shine to it. I'm not sure if I'm going to submit this pattern anywhere once it's done, so I'm going to have to keep you in the dark for now on the details. Anyway this pattern has gone through about 18 different versions already, so even if I put up a picture, it would be irrelevant in about 24 hours anyway, once I've changed my mind for the thousandth time. I took pictures a while back but I think the pattern is totally different now than when I started. Is it even the same pattern at that point? At what point have you basically scrapped your original idea, and when does it become a completely a new thing?

The second pair is a men's fingerless glove (or I guess you could call them gauntlets, but if I called them that, probably a lot of guys would be like, "you're making me a what, now?"... or who knows, maybe they would be like, "gauntlets! I don't know what that is but it sounds awesome! Is that something ninjas wear?!") Anyhow, like many people, I was struck by some of the knitwear in Sweeney Todd when I watched it, and I got a good closeup screenshot of Sweeney's fingerless gloves. After testing a lot of stitch patterns I decided that I didn't really care about duplicating the stitch exactly. I was really interested in the diagonal bias in the sitch, rather than the exact stitch itself. So I'm playing up the diagonal lines by making the gloves in a rib, and having it merge to form a V at the sides. I'm calling these "Vendetta gloves", and I think I'm going to write up a pattern for his and hers versions of it. Hopefully these will be available on Ravelry in the next few weeks! P.S. on the gauntlets: Nevermind that I'm working with DPN's that are entirely too long! It's a little ridiculous, but I can't help it. My grandmother gave me most of her old knitting needles, including a ton of aluminum DPNs in really great colors, and I use them even when they are totally unwieldy, just because I love them so much. Thanks, Babci!

A note to SPSS 17.0

Dear SPSS, One thing you might not be aware of is that I prefer instantaneous cutting and pasting, rather than a process which takes approximately the same length of time as an inning in baseball. Also, the very last thing I like to see is a bunch of question marks where my data used to be. Call me crazy. Finally, although I appreciate that you are "processing" my request for an ANOVA, I would also appreciate it if you would finish "processing" it so that I can actually view the results. I don't ask for much. I really don't. [If this entry makes sense to anyone else I'll be thrilled that someone else understands my frustration, but at the moment it's just here for venting purposes.]

I'm on my 3rd pan aux raisins of the morning. No regrets!

Pan Aux Raisins, originally uploaded by Go Suzy Go.

I made these last night/this morning and they came out SO good. Usually I don't have my act together to start a breakfast pastry the night before (which usually means that I make a lot of scones and muffins that take about a half hour total). But I've been itching to try to make some brioche pastry.

All in all it was actually really easy, despite the time commitment -- the recipe came from The Fresh Loaf website. The ingredients get mixed just until combined, then it rises for an hour and a half on the counter, gets punched down and put in the fridge overnight. The next morning you roll up the swirls with raisins and cinnamon sugar, put them on the baking sheet and let them rise again for an hour. So it's a lot of rising time, but they only bake for 15-17 minutes at the end of it all so it's over quickly.

And thank god because I really, really, really wanted to eat them by the time the apartment started smelling like cinnamon sugar.

And now I'm on my third and I don't even care. I'm making another pot of coffee.

Cardigan in progress

Cardigan in progress, originally uploaded by Go Suzy Go.

Here's the Lucy in the Sky, so far. Actually, I've gotten about half of the other sleeve done too. The body is the slowest going.... it's a lot of stitches and for some reason my hands keep aching while I'm knitting it. I think the yarn, and the nylon circular needle, are really slippery, and so I'm trying to grip the yarn really tightly to keep my tension. I'm playing around with holding the yarn in a few different ways to see if that fixes the problem.

But regardless, I love this pattern! The little diamond stitch pattern is really cute and simple. I think this sweater will see a lot of use once it's done. I'm always complaining that I don't have enough plain, versatile cardigans.

Sadly, it won't be done until it's too warm to wear it, but it'll be ready for the fall, anyway.

Spring cleaning

Alex and I completely reorganized our whole apartment.... This involved basically tearing the whole thing apart and putting it back together. It started with us complaining about all the crap that's just in the way, and ended with all of the furniture being moved, bags and bags of recycling being taken out, and the entire layout being changed. Later on in the evening, it also involved a trip to our local convenience store, where we purchased a case of bud light and a pint of chocolate fudge brownie fro-yo (possibly our classiest purchase ever). But now the clutter is gone. It's a big relief. I'm hoping this will renew my optimism and motivation to get all my other work done. A little change of scenery (subtle as it may be) can only be a good thing when I feel like otherwise my work life has become a pretty monotonous chore. It's not, really, but it feels that way. There is not nearly enough time to do all the other non-work things that I have been meaning to get done for ages. I cannot wait to be done TAing. This is my last TAing gig possibly ever, and it will be done next week. The sad part is that I do like teaching but I just don't have time to worry or care about it right now. One day I will (both worry and care). It is 89 degrees out. The trees are blooming. I just saw a huge redtailed hawk swoop down out of nowhere in the middle of a college campus. I won't lie -- I was kind of hoping it would fly away with an undergraduate in its talons. It didn't.

Surprises, disappointments

The nerd show was less of a spectacle than I was anticipating. The science students partied respectably -- way to go nerds! High five! I did come up with a new category of nerd: the smelly nerd. Which sometimes overlaps with other types, but deserves its own category because it is so easy to classify. In fact, this classification can be done from several feet away with one's eyes closed, as I have discovered at some lectures. Should I be flattered or offended that instead of wanting to talk about my work, one professor would rather discuss breasts? Not mine specifically, but just in general? I wasn't even really sure how to direct attention back to my poster, short of pointing toward it with my nipples. I wonder how many male students had professors discuss penises at their posters. I'm guessing none. I didn't get into either summer intensive course that I applied to, even the one that I have applied to for three years in a row. A little confused about that one since last year I was placed on the waitlist. This year: Flat out rejected. How did I get LESS qualified in a year's time? Not exactly a confidence booster. I am so close to having enough data to finish this dissertation that I can taste it. Oh wait, what I'm tasting is my 14th cup of coffee today. But if I could taste it, I'm pretty sure it would taste like victory. MMmmm sweet victory. You will be mine. Oh yes. You will be mine. (The annoying part is that I really can't do a hell of a lot of work until I have enough subjects because the results would be meaningless. Until then I just gaze at my half-full spreadsheets the way I imagine women long ago gazed at the open sea while waiting for their husbands to return from some voyage to god knows where.) Meanwhile, sweaters are being knit. Gloves are being knit. The Lucy in the Sky cardigan is going faster than I expected! A trip to San Francisco, a trip to Philadelphia, and multiple trips back and forth and back and forth to the lab... all that time seems to have added up. The body is almost up to the armpits, one sleeve is done up to the armpit, and the other is about a quarter done. It'll be nice to join it all up and see it coming together into a garment at the very end. Doing sweaters from the top down is nice, but I always poop out finishing the sleeves and the bottom of the body because it gets boring and you have an entire sweater hanging from your needles the whole time. (Hello, Glee sweater that has been mocking me for months now. I see you over there, laughing at me.) I'm also changing this glove pattern to use sock yarn because why not -- everyone has sock yarn lying around anyway and I like thinner, fitted gloves better. For some reason my hands have been aching lately though, and the size 1 needles in the round aren't helping matters. I think I need to play around with different ways of holding the yarn in order to let my hands relax more. I hope I'm not getting arthritis -- You'd think I would be too young but that would TOTALLY be my luck. I saw some videos of Portuguese style knitting and purling. Kind of like a magic trick. I might give it a go. SPSS is beckoning to me from the minimized window (I'm coming, my love...) so I believe this particular bout of procrastination must come to an end. Starting....Right........ now.

Welcome to the nerd show.

I'm going to a neuroscience retreat tomorrow, where graduate students, postdocs, and faculty will mingle and determine whose nerd power is the strongest. There will be epic battles and fights to the death over computational models and fruit fly genetics. There will also be "music and dancing" although I am picturing a junior high school dance with all the boys on one side and the girls on the other side. However, the program of events informs me that alcohol will be served! So perhaps in addition to being awkward, some people will also become belligerent! It should be a good time. The BF and I came up with an idea. You've all seen dog shows. There's best in breed, then best in group, and finally best in show. I think you could do the same thing with types of nerds, if you could call nerds a breed (and I think most people would agree that you probably can). There's the typical bookish computer nerd, characterized by thick glasses, pleated trousers, maybe a pocket protector (although that's a little cliche, now isn't it?), maybe a TI-83 stashed away somewhere on his person for easy access. But there are other types of nerds as well. The long haired nerd, or sci-fi nerd, who plays D&D and dresses in black, usually some kind of computer programmer or at least a gamer. We're all familiar with that one. There's also the nerd who is the coolest among his circle of nerds and so thinks that he is cool among the general population. The hipster nerd, or the nerdster. He is probably not that cool at all, but usually has a wardrobe that suggests that he thinks he knows what's up. An ironic screenprinted t-shirt, say, and Electric Six on his iPod, and he thinks he is worldly and edgy. We came up with another new category that I think is a new one: The nerd-bro. This is a nerd who tries to be a dude-bro, or thinks he is a dude-bro. Who uses his intellectual powers to be a complete jerk. Usually nerd-bros also think they are incredibly suave with the ladies (also a complete illusion). This category of nerds usually results from a lifetime of being picked on by actual dude-bros, and the desire to prove one's superiority in any way possible. Tragically, the nerd-bro turns into the very thing that he once despised. This is the worst of all nerd breeds. Most nerds are harmless and even lovable, but the nerd-bro is deadly and should be avoided at all costs. We tried desperately to come up with female breeds of nerds but came up somewhat dry, except to note that there are also female sci-fi nerds. Sadly, other female nerds tend to be somewhat nondescript. Or perhaps female nerds just end up more well-rounded or well-adjusted, and don't separate themselves out quite so nicely when dumped into a social setting. So now I have totally lost my sense of identity, being a self-proclaimed female nerd. I guess I should be pleased not to be so labelable, but really I'm just sort of sad that I can't be best in show. I'm also sad that I can't come up with a category to fit the word dominerdtrix that I just came up with just now. Because that would be awesome.

If at first we don't succeed, give us more of your money

This post is going to be an extremely off topic rant. You have been warned. There is one commercial on television that I hate more than any other commercial that I have ever seen (with the possible exception of the idiotic freecreditreport.com ones that make me run as fast as I can away from my television set, and maybe the commercials for high fructose corn syrup), and that commerical is for Abilify. The commercial goes something like: "2 out of 3 people with depression are not helped by depression medications. For them, there's Abilify. Taken along with an antidepressant, it can help ease the symptoms of blah blah blah blah..... buy this medication. Oh and p.s. you can get chronic dry mouth, uncontrollable muscle movements, and possibly fall into a diabetic coma. When your antidepressant alone isn't enough, there's Abilify! Talk to your doctor now!" Thanks, Bristol-Myers Squibb. Are you serious? First they go ahead and tell you that antidepressants don't work for a lot of people (in fact, the majority). Then, instead of saying "stop taking the antidepressant if it's not helping you" they say "in addition to taking the antidepressant that isn't helping you, ALSO BUY this other medication, that ALSO may not help you." What's next? "Are you currently taking Zoloft and Abilify, and your depression symptoms persist? Try Buymorasol. When your other two useless medications aren't enough!" Have you seen The Wire? During the first season, a drug dealer is discussing how, if they want to make more money, they water down the drugs so that they get junkies less high, so that they have to buy more. "Funny thing is, the worse we do, the more we make" was the line, in a nutshell. Sound familiar?.... the worse antidepressants work, the more medication you have to buy? Also, in the technical documentation buried in their website they refer to Abilify as an antipsychotic. I feel like most people who end up taking this might be surprised to find out they are on an antipsychotic. Don't get me wrong, I totally support antidepressants, and they are remarkably helpful for many people. But seriously, if an antidepressant isn't working for you, try a different one, or try a different kind of therapy. Don't keep taking the medication that doesn't help. It's a waste of money. So having a commercial advertising a waste of money that will benefit large corporations makes me want to throw my remote at the screen. End of rant.

Knitting nostalgia

I'm working on adapting a ballet sweater I have into a knitting pattern. Although you see ballet sweater patterns all over the place, they're always the wraparound kind, and strangely I never had one like that in all the years I was taking ballet. The kind that I had, I've never seen a pattern for one like it, so I'm keeping everyone in the dark for now until I work it out! It'll be cute though. Ballet warmups are so great for knitting inspiration though -- there are so many specialized accessories that you never see anywhere else but are completely and uniquely functional. I have a knitted pair of boy shorts: why? well, they keep your hips warm. But they've also come in really handy under a skirt in New England fall weather. I also adore all the legwarmers that were bought from dance supply stores way more than any I've tried to knit thus far. I think for a while I'm just going to de-engineer all these pieces to make up patterns. If they ever get lost or (more likely) eaten by moths in my apartment I will be so sad not to have a replacement. The only crummy part is that they're all knit with what looks like lace to fingering weight yarn on what looks like size 2 to 4 needles so it may take my lifetime just to make one piece. *sigh!* I need more hours in my day.

Just MAKE the damn gloves already!

I designed a new pair of gloves for myself, made almost a whole glove, and decided that I didn't like how it looked after all. I've since been swatching and swatching and swatching stitch patterns, trying to get the motif right for the back of the hand. Somehow this is more challenging than I anticipated. My swatch keeps getting bigger! Also it's a little embarrassing when people are like, "so what are you making?" and I have to say "Well, eventually I will make gloves. When I'm ready. But that day is not today." Or "Arrgh, I don't even know anymore! This thing is such a mess! It's a disgrace!" Yelling like that in public is just unbecoming. But slowly, very slowly, it's getting better. One day I will have an actual garment.

DPNs and hotness

I think the probability that people will ask me what I'm knitting while I'm on the train increases by a factor of 20 if I'm using double pointed needles. Something about seeing 4 needles instead of 2. Although, I successfully explained what knitting in the round is to a random dude who asked about it today, so hey. I made my brothers gloves and mittens for xmas -- some mittens for my older brother, some fingerless gloves for my younger brother, and some convertible fingerless gloves/mittens for my youngest brother. I was pretty burned out on making thumbs and fingers for a while. But it made me realize I need some for myself, so I'm designing a pair. I have some gray sport weight wool that just won't die (I've made a hat and some fingerless gloves for Alex out of it, and I still have 132 yards left. Weird). Speaking of which, Alex got me a niddy noddy for xmas. My pile of yarn is now transforming into pretty little skeins with labels saying exactly how many yards there are, which is how I know that I have 132 yards of gray sport weight wool. It's a beautiful thing. Normally I just look at the leftover yarn and wonder if it would be enough to make anything out of. And then when I'm not sure, I just go and buy more yarn for whatever the next project is, and the stash goes unbusted. No more! I made some chipotle hummus using some Goya canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. FYI, those things don't mess around. I used half of the can and it's wicked spicy. I like spicy though, so it's cool. But damn. This happened once a few weeks ago too -- we got a jar of chili black bean sauce from the Cmart in Chinatown and dumped 2/3 of the jar into a stir fry. Yeah. We were not very happy campers the next day. Oh, we ate it, for sure. We even huffed and puffed and blew our runny noses and exclaimed how hot it was, but we did eat it quite happily. The next day was a different story. Then a couple weeks later we decided to make some more stir fry with it, and thought "well, we used 2/3 of the jar last time, so if we use the rest that will be half as much. So that should be good, right?" Wrong. Still kicked our asses. So anyway, I'm glad I didn't dump the whole can of peppers into the hummus because burning myself this way three times would have been pretty pathetic. Now I'm hungry... gotta go!

Worse than I remembered

I think it's funny that my last post was a year ago, and in it I mentioned how bad I am at blogging. Ha! No kidding! My main problem is how many different sites I'm now required to update on a regular basis.... I gave up on MySpace. Not really awesome at updating Facebook either. I joined LinkedIn but I'm still not really sure how to use it. There's a new site called mybostonscience.com that's a social networking site for scientists and educators in the Boston area. I just joined, but already I don't really have time to do much with it. My photos go on Flickr, and I usually do manage to keep up with that. I had another blog somewhere else that I used to update more, but that sort of fell by the wayside also. And then in addition to that there is a knitting website called Ravelry that I like a whole lot, but also requires updating with pictures and whatnot. Fortunately that one integrates pretty seamlessly with Flickr so I actually use it more regularly. Then I have three email accounts: work, school, and junk addresses that need checking. Seriously it's just too much. But I'm going to update this one so that I DON'T have to update the others. We'll see if it works! But man, I don't know how people have time to blog and network all the time because for me it just gets ridiculous. Am I really that busy? I can't be....