On the path of good intentions

Hmmph. All this discussion of religion has forced me to spend my precious Phd time thinking about my own beliefs and thus updating the f.a.q. question on why I'm an atheist. The reason I'm linking to it is I find myself somewhat (though not extremely) annoyed by the assumption that what works for oneself is right for everyone, although I realise it's hard not to assume this when it's basic tenet of your faith :) Anyway, this way rather than a badly written rant filling up your friends page you get a link to a somewhat considered rant you can read if you like.

I think my annoyance is a hold-over from discussions with members of religions like Hare Krishna(*), where while they don't think you'll go to hell, if you disagree with them they just go "Ah, well, if you were enlightened you'd see why I'm right". *grumble*

Note the "b" in the "f.a.q 2.02b". I may later realise it all came out wrong, and change it. So feel free to comment if you think I'm full of crap :) If I send it off now I can get back to work. Hopefully.

(*)Is that the name of the religion? I realise I don't actually know. Hare Krishnaism?

Lost shirt from ages past when magic ruled

I decided to go through my draft posts, and came across this shirt I did last year: front and back.

Yes, thats the stained shirt I couldn't work out what to do with at Terracon, I think the orange splotches look intentional now, which is nice. And yes, I stole the little-hand-written-note-at-the-bottom idea from Stephie, the text was suggested by someone on a message-board I frequented at the time.

Since I took these photos I washed it and all the colour came off :(
(Except the orange stains, of course) I might make another one day...

A couple of things before the workers arrive

First off, it turns out some of you didn't know I was in a coma. I felt like I told everyone I knew, I suppose it was just a subset, several times over. I'm also engaged, and doing a Phd (just to be on the safe side) :)

When I was a kid I had a number of phobias that would make me absolutely miserable with fear. I'm over most of them now. I have proof. Last week I had bloodtests and every bin we own which contained any fruit scraps whatsoever became infested with fruitfly. While checking the compost bin yesterday (Which also appears to have mice, and I really don't care), I got a bee-sting. I went to the dr (Since I'm possibly allergic) and she was like "Oh, the beestings ok, but you should get a tetanus shot". Thats needles of both types AND bees AND larvae-maggoty things, all of which I dealt with without too much stress. Now I just need to end up in a high place somehow, and I'll have a complete set. (Clearly some higher power is messing with me and Rae)

Also I got stung by a wasp on Christmas Day, but I think that was just God punishing me for getting presents on his birthday when I don't even believe in Him :)

The reason for the title of this post is that Joc is coming over after work for company. If you don't know why you should probably go read her livejournal, unless you don't know who she is in which case you should get to know her (possibly under better circumstances), she's nice :)

Last, and probably least in most of your estimation, I made a crochet Sierpinski_carpet today, mostly in the doctors waiting room and while on the phone to my grandma. (Who talks more than my mum, who talks more than me. The three of us together is quite intense) The piece I did is pretty boring, but I like the look of the larger version I photoshopped:

Wouldn't that make a cool blanket or something? No? Fine :P

Smoke on the distant horizon

Some photos I took way back when we were engulfed in smoke but didn't get round to dealing with til today.
First, from around 2pm:

Then, a few hours later:

I know it's way old but I thought the contrast was worth recording.

Happy Anti-Hallmark Day

I have recently decided to boycott major card manufacturers on holidays designed to sell greetings cards. Since the people who are affected by this are either members of my family or Cam, and thus used to my foibles, I should be able to get away with it :)

Acceptable sources of cards are charities (Such as Community Aid Abroad), small local companies/individuals (such as my local art gallerys hand-made cards) and of course ones own creativity.

Another alternative is what Cam got today, namely an sms at 3pm when I suddenly remembered it was valentines :) (Plus some lollies I'd bought earlier, I'm not completely without romance)

An advantage of the anti-cards stance is it puts single people at a definite advantage, which I say they deserve after all the smug sentimentality they they have to put up with from we coupled folk.

Viva la Revolution!

Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Squares

Thats right, a recipe! For the past couple of weeks I had this incredible craving for mars bar slice. I made it, loved it, and felt very ill. I then had to work out what to do with the remaining box of rice bubbles. After some experimentation, we have..

Ingredients:
-2 cups rice bubbles
-1 tablespoon peanut butter
-1 teaspoon margerine/butter
-100g marshmallows

Directions:
Grease and line tin (20cm square is a little big but ok)
Microwave first 3 ingredients for about 10 sec, till marshmallows puff up.
Mix in rice bubbles and put mixture into tin. Flatten.
Cool in fridge, then cut into squares and put into an airtight container.

Obviously you could make more, this is is about the minimum worth making. The basic idesa behind these sorts of recipes seems to be melting caramel/chocolate/marshmallow with a small amount of nicely flavoured fat (generally butter), then mixing in crunchy carbohydrates like cereal or biscuits. Next idea is melting jersey caramels and mixing with biscuits..mmm...

Just me and my personal obsessions here folks.

First off, I have a paper online!! Sorry, forgot to post this for ages. I don't expect you all to read the actual paper, but I'm sure there's at a few people who'd like to read the abstract, or at least the title :) Not that I wrote many of the actual words, per se. I did write the draft of a chapter the first draft of the paper was based on, though! Plus a few sentences here or there.

To anyone who likes beads, the Gypsy Bead in North Perth is quite nice (I prefer Benjamins Crafts, but I have a feeling this is purely becuase everything comes in little plastic jars. I like jars) and there is a bead/jewellry/knickknack store in freo (on the Queensgate block) so huge it fills three shops. Only one of which has eftpos, meaning I paid in one store for a purchase in the other, which was surreal. In the post-mars-bar-slice fevered daze I was in at the time they didn't actually seem that good, but I'll have to look again when I can think clearly.

And if I didn't scare you all off there, more crochet! Yay! With maths! Double yay!! I know of only one crocheter who reads this, and she hates maths, so really this is for me :)

James, King of Links sent me the gallery of crocheted hyperbolic models which I thought was way cool, especially since the shapes are pretty easy to make. I sent a post to the lj "crochet" community, assuming there wouldn't be any other maths geeks, and got an absolute avalanche of responses. That'll teach me to make assumptions. Anyway, they suggested some pretty funky maths crochet links (No that's not an oxymoron!) :

• More technical article about hyperbolic planes.
• Crochet Lorenz Butterfly I am truly in awe.
• Sierpinski trinagle shawl pattern
• Pictures from that funky American Maths Soc. Maths in Fibre Arts session.
• Someone with no consonants writes a post with geeky crochet links..other than me :)

And from the post where I discovered the intersection of crochet and maths, we have a more topological shapes and a klein bottle hat.

I am aware that I talk about crochet more than I actually crochet, and will probably bore of it soon. Thats the joy of a blog, rather than boring everyone I know in person I can ramble about it here and you can all ignore me, but have evidence to bug me about it with later. Everybody wins!

Nerdily creative

Hmmph. I have this cool idea for a comic..(well, an idea anyway) and it just won't coalesce.

To make myself feel better, we have John Howard pulling his sensitve caring polititian face. (You know, the face. No pictures of it online, afaict(*)) His eyes are so squinty I just geussed eye colour.

My first ever political cartoon! And its..chibi. Hmm. I stole what sad chibis look like from this Kagerou cartoon since I'm not much into the manga drawing, usually.

To further illustrate my odd geekiness we have

Which in retrospect might have made more sense in green on a black background.

I have eaten too much Mars Bar Slice, and I don't care :)

(*)I have decided to coin my my own acronym, since a good half of my sentences require an "as far as I can tell" disclaimer. And look! It's almost "A fact" :)