It's not just the intarwubs...your people are out there

A conversation that I've had several times with several different groups of people (sometimes multiple times) goes like this:

"Hey, did you see [enter weird niche site here]? Freaks."
"Man, you can find anything on the internet."

So I was at Barnes and Noble (one in a building, not on the online) this morning, and was wandering around the excessively large magazine section, and it turns out it's not just the internet. Apparently, there are crazy niche magazines, too. Some were niche but not, you know, weird: Russian Life, Handguns Magazine--incidentally, there were several magazines of this type and a guy studying them intently, which I found a little weird and creepy. I'm not against handguns per se, but I think I might be against people who read lots of handgun magazines--lots of craft, home dec, entertainment, photography, etc. etc. and so on. But then there were some that were just weird. My two favorites in this category were Pirates Magazine--for some reason located in the Wicca section--and Meatpaper: Your Meat Culture Magazine, located in the, I kid you not, art magazine section. The pirate thing was surprising mostly because I just didn't know there was that much demand for a pirate magazine, but Meatpaper was a beautifully done, glossy, slick, well-photographed and laid out journal of meaty goodness. And really, it looked like it was all about meat and nothing but meat. They're on issue 6. Crazy. And now I want bacon.

posted by Laura Y. @ 11:47 AM 1 comments

Beginnings and finishings

I almost don't want to post today, because it's you know, all historical and all, and I know that no matter what I write it won't be big enough or grand enough to take it all in. So about Obama, I'm just going to say that I'm so, so glad. I finally feel like I can be proud of my country again. I very much enjoyed his inaugural speech, and am glad that he didn't pull punches too much when he talked about the dismal shape our nation and her people are in after the past eight years. I think we are incredibly lucky to have this chance to turn things around.

Less historically, I have finished several knitting projects recently.

The Hemlock Ring Blanket was delightful to knit, and the classes at The Point with Jared were totally awesome, but I'm a tad disappointed with the final product. It's a bit smaller than I expected, even after blocking. I think it will be nice in the spring when there's just that bit of chill in the air, or in the summer when we have the AC on. It would actually be the perfect size for a lap blanket for someone who is wheelchair bound.



The white stuff on top is snow -- I put it down wrong side up the first time. I decided it gave it character. (The white stuff underneath is snow as well, but it's not my fault it's there. Well, except that I'm the one who chose to take the picture there. Oh, never mind.)

There are also two baby sweaters, both of which are on the way to their intended recipients* so I will post pictures of them later in the week. And I finished Wicked, which I will have Kit take pictures of me in, maybe tonight. It looks like nothing without a person in it, but on...hoo boy. Nice sweater.

I was supposed to go to the opera tonight, and was kind of looking forward to getting out of the house, but it's cold, and I don't feel great, and I don't really feel like slogging into the city, and I'm tired, and mostly, it's really, really cold. I hate the cold. But yes, I would move to Boston in a heartbeat despite its colder-ness, because the people there make it warm and welcoming even when it's wicked retahded freezing and snowy outside.

*This is not strictly true as of this posting, but they are both in boxes** and Kit will send them out in the morning

**This is also not strictly true, but one is and I will be finishing the other this evening so it will be in a box by the time Kit leaves for work in the morning.

posted by Laura Y. @ 12:48 PM 0 comments

Author Crush

I have a thing for not-so-great sci-fi/fantasy genre movies. I know that they're mostly not great -- in fact, I usually know before I watch them that they're not going to be super-great -- but I generally enjoy them*. I tend to Netflix anything that comes out in that genre, and about a year ago, I got Stardust. It wasn't spectacular, but it was okay, and it had a feel about it almost as if the movie had got in the way of the storytelling. Also, I had heard good things over the years about this Neil Gaiman fellow who wrote it, so I was really interested in seeing if the prose version was better than the movie version.

So I picked up a copy of the paperback, and it was pretty darn good. I went ahead and grabbed a copy of Neverwhere, another Gaiman novel, and it was even better. The third Gaiman novel I read was Anansi Boys, and after that, I was well and truly hooked (American Gods is phenomenal. If you read nothing else by Gaiman, you should read that.). The entire time I was reading Anansi Boys I felt like I was sitting in a pub with Gaiman and maybe two or three of our closest friends, and he was just telling us this story about this guy he knows. Which is a pretty amazing feeling to carry for an entire 400-plus page book.

Those of you who know me will know that I tend to go on jags: when I find an author/tv show/actor/food that I like, I binge on as much as I can get ahold of as quickly as I can. I couldn't figure out why I hadn't hit on Gaiman before: he writes in a genre I like to read; he's both prolific and famous; he writes quite long novels (this is important to me when I buy books, as I read quite quickly and like to get as much bang for my book-dollar as possible); and I was almost certain I'd read something by him before.

Turns out that for the past decade or so, I've avoided him because I confused him with another famous, prolific, long-winded genre writer named Neil (or rather, Neal**) who is also, in fact, quite a good author, but just not as much pure fun to read as Gaiman in my opinion.

And not only have I been enjoying Gaiman's prose, but he has thrown open the door to a type of literature which I've largely ignored most of my life: the comic book/graphic novel. I think mostly I ignored comics when I was a kid because they were short (see above re: reading quickly). I had read a few here and there and was familiar with the basic stories of the bigger names (Batman, Superman, Spider Man, etc.), but really had no interest in getting into comics at all.

Then a couple of years ago I read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and that really made me want to read comics. Then I did read a few, and I didn't want to read them any more (okay, it was The Watchmen. I hated it. It was just...ugly. And, I think, not that interesting for someone not terrifically invested in the whole superhero paradigm. But I digress.). Kit brought home the Runaways books, and those were pretty good, but not enough to really make me want to go out and buy graphic novels for myself.

But once I got hooked on Gaiman, and made my way through all of his available prose, I needed a fix. I picked up The Facts in The Case of the Departure of Miss Finch which is both beautiful and well-written. After that I flipped through the first Sandman book, which I liked but didn't love because of the colors (the writing is pretty magnificent, though). Then I found out that the big collector's editions have been re-colored and are much prettier, so I'm picking up those as I get the really good (40% off) coupons from Barnes and Noble. And then there was Marvel 1602, which is absolutely gorgeous, incredibly creative, and lots of fun to read. Since then I've branched out into the Miller Dark Knight books (thanks, Kit, for getting me the first ones for Christmas) and have the Buffy Season Eight books ready to read, too.

Finally, Neil Gaiman writes this blog. He posts pretty frequently about his own stuff, other people's stuff, stuff that's happening around the world, answers to emails people send him and so on, and like the rest of his writing it's tremendously fun to read. And it turns out that not only is he pretty cool, but he seems to have this sort of ring of coolness around him, so that everything he touches generates other cool stuff. For instance, he didn't even know about these when they started going out. And seriously, how cool is that? But the other day I learned about something while reading his blog that means that even if everything else he ever writes is complete crap (unlikely), I will always love him a little bit: one of his early works is a biography of Duran Duran.

Duran Duran was my favorite band when I was a teenager, and remains to this day the only band I can name all of the members of off the top of my head. They were completely cheesy and I loved them so, so much. Copies of the Gaiman biography seem to be pretty dear, but some day when I have some disposable income again, I'm going to buy one for myself.

So anyway, that's what I've been reading lately.

*Two notable recent exceptions: Wanted, which is dumbfoundingly stupid, and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale which has been on cable every day for the past two months and is so awful I can't manage to sit through more than five minutes of it at a time.

**Stephenson

posted by Laura Y. @ 5:55 PM 0 comments

We do what?

I came across this article on writing today, and I think it's got some pretty good tips. However, it also has this:

Knitters leave a bit of yarn sticking out of the day's knitting so they know where to pick up the next day -- they call it the "hint."

What? That doesn't even make sense. That's not how knitting works. For my readers who are not knitters, the whole ball of yarn is connected to the work. Most knitters, unless they are knitting in the round, are rather compulsive about knitting to the end of the row, particularly if they're working on straight needles. Any "hint" about where to start knitting a pattern again, like, say, what row of a chart you're on, tends to be marked on the paper, or noted in Ravelry, or something like that. Occasionally, a knitter will come up with a non-paper system (I occasionally knit X stitches past the marker when working in the round to signify the row I'm on), but I've never heard anyone refer to anything as "The Hint" and "leaving a bit of yarn sticking out" just, well, just doesn't work. I've tried to relate this to other yarn-y crafts like crochet and weaving, and can't make it work with them, either. A quick search on Ravely doesn't reveal anything, either. So where did Doctorow come up with this? Weird.

And hey, look, pics of the kids!


Seriously, Zack, the whole Flashdance thing is just passe. Sorry you didn't get the memo.


She LOVES putting together this puzzle. This particular instance was while her father was at work, and she insisted I take a picture so he could see it when he got home, since we have to put the puzzle away when Thugsly is up and about. Yes, she is wearing two completely different socks. Yes, my house really is that messy.

posted by Laura Y. @ 8:37 AM 0 comments

Why you should hire me

So, just in case the people reading my resume are Googlers, I've decided to write this handy blog post about why you--yes, you--should hire me. I'm not the right person for every job, but I'm definitely the perfect person for some jobs. There are certain qualities that make this so. I'm not talking about the hard-working, can-work-independently-but-still-be-a-team-player stuff that's standard these days (although both of those things are true). The following is a list of things that I am particularly good at, that a lot of other people aren't:

• Approaching a problem from multiple angles. Because I have such a wide breadth of experience, from web design to customer service to marketing (see my resume for more details!), I know that there is, as the saying goes, more than one way to skin a cat. When faced with a problem, I think about all the different solutions I can come up with and then choose the best one for the job.


• Creating tools to serve a specific purpose, using the tools at hand. If I need a tool to track customer interactions and the company doesn't have the resources to invest in a full-blown CRM program I can (and have) create a bare-bones version in Access. (I have expert knowledge in Excel and HTML/CSS as well.)


• Using what I already know to learn what I don't. In Excel, for example, there are a number of things I don't know how to do (it's a big program -- I doubt there's anyone out there who knows all of the things Excel can do). But I know how to do enough things that I can make a pretty educated guess about other things it can do...and to find out how to do those things.


• Finding answers/solving problems. I have an almost obsessive need to know why something anomalous has occurred, and I'm very, very good at quickly digging out the reason. In the past, this has led to catching major software bugs before customers encountered them, discovery of customer fraud, and even finding that something we thought at first glance was a major problem was in fact a simple fix.


• Putting together puzzle pieces of data to show the big picture. I have found that data is often gathered and/or returned in a way that leaves out a critical piece of information for whatever report is needed at the moment. The answer is to combine reports, but this can be tricky from both a technical perspective and also when thinking about data integrity. I know what to look for, what questions to ask, and how to make the proper adjustments to get reliable big picture data.


• The ability to analyze both quantitatively and qualitatively...and to analyze discrepancies between the two results when necessary.


• I speak geek. I have enough of a technical background that when developers explain to me why something can't be done in the budget/timeframe/whatever that I need it, I understand and can often come up with a viable compromise or alternative that makes everyone happy.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of my skills...those that are more concrete can be found on my resume. But I'm guessing if you're Googling me, you've already seen that and want to know a little more about me before you contact me for an interview (or maybe we've already spoken and I've piqued your interest). If the above sounds like the type of person you're looking for in your organization, I'd love to hear from you (laura DOT yona AT gmail DOT com). If not, I hope I've saved us both some time and wish you the best of luck in your search.

posted by Laura Y. @ 7:10 PM

From the mouths of babes

I believe I may have mentioned that we've taken the kids down to three days a week in school, which means I've got them home with me on Mondays and Wednesdays. On those days, my job searching is pretty much limited to the two hours they're napping. Today, unfortunately, naps were short for both kids. So they're playing nicely and I've got the laptop open, and Becky keeps coming over to show me things and ask me questions. I'm right in the middle of composing a quick introductory letter for my former boss to send to someone he knows at a company I'm applying to (I hate networking. I hate, hate, hate it. It just feels so fake. But I figure it can't hurt.) and Becky looks over and asks what I'm doing right now. So I say, "I'm trying to get a job." She looks at the screen, looks at me, and says, "A job? Mommy, that's so silly. That's just ridiculous!"

Thanks, baby. I appreciate your support. She did make me cry earlier, though (in a good way) when I asked her if she likes the music teacher at school and she thought about it for a minute and said, "No, mommy...I like you."

posted by Laura Y. @ 12:36 PM 1 comments

Starting fresh

NOTE: If you downloaded the Toddler Twist pattern prior to 12/30/08, please redownload it now. Thanks to a sharp Raveler several typos were discovered and have now been corrected.

So, new year, new things to do. Obviously not everything about my life is changing radically this year, but I already know I won't have the same job, and the kids will continue to grow and learn, and so on and so forth. I'm not a huge fan of resolutions, so I'm only going to make one, and it's going to be very broad and open to interpretation (and also stolen from the title of an episode of Friday Night Lights which is a seriously fun show to watch -- it's like The O.C. only in a small Texas town and with football instead of money):

Git 'er done.

That's it. I have a tremendous number of projects that are in various stages of completion, from still in my mind to just needing a little finishing. This year, I want to be better about getting existing projects done, and especially about following through with getting things out of my head and into production. So here's a very partial list of things I'll be working on getting done:

- Coloring comic strips for this contest
- Finishing a quilt for Zack
- Contacting everyone I know who can help me find a job (MW, AL, etc.)
- Finishing the last three stair treads for our stairs
- Blocking the Hemlock Ring blanket (it looks like this right now, in case you're interested)



- Mailing the three packages I have almost ready to go
- Finishing baby sweater and sending along with way overdue shower gift
- Creating a database system intended for writers to keep idea notes in (working name is Jot; I haven't decided whether to do it in Access or HanDBase yet -- I think the latter might actually be more useful)
- Knitting sweaters for Becky, Jene, Zack, Kit, and myself
- Knitting an assortment of socks
- Refreshing my Latin, German, Greek and French, in that order. I have zero talent for languages, but I've been well schooled in all of these and am a little embarrassed that my understanding of all of them is so limited. I'm pretty sure if I actually apply myself and keep up reading them, I'll at least have a passable knowledge.
- Reading the excess of books I own but have not yet read. To be fair, this is one that only ever gets to be a worse problem, as I cannot seem to pass a bookstore without several of them coming home to live with me, and though I'm a pretty quick reader, I do have a finite amount of time available for this
- Writing articles. I know about a lot of different things, especially crafts, and even more especially fiber arts. Surely I can write something interesting about some of it.
- Dyeing fabric and yarn.
- Finishing a quilt for Becky (? - she has asked for one and I already have the top done, but she asked for the Hemlock Ring, too, and now has no interest in it)
- Publishing more patterns, both freebies and paymes
- Sew some clothes for Becky and me

Well, I'm overwhelmed now, how about you? Seriously, though, it does help me to have everything written down in one place...otherwise I tend to just forget I'm doing things (like just now Kit reminded me that he made me a delightful burger that I'm letting cool and totally forgot about, so I'm going to go eat that now...okay, I'm back) and replace them with new things.

So here's hoping all of you had a great year last year and have an even better one in 2009. And also, check out my awesome kids!


He doesn't have one of these any more except when he sleeps, and also, no more bottles! Cuppies only from here on out! Our little boy is all grows up. Sniffle.




Ah, the Christmas concert. At least she didn't scream the entire time this year -- only for two songs worth. Then she even sang a little.



More notes to myself re: things I want to blog about:
- convo with Pat Rothfuss -- SQUEE!
- Christmas -- kid stuff
- TED
- Neil Gaiman
- Comic books/Graphic novels
- Movies

posted by Laura Y. @ 5:33 PM 0 comments