So, there's this one female cardinal that has wintered in the woods behind our house for several years now. It looks like a perfectly ordinary female cardinal, the right coloring, feathers all correctly aligned, etc. The thing is, I'm pretty sure it has permanent brain damage. Every year, without fail, we hear this TWACKing a the living room window every couple days. At first we weren't sure what was causing it, and then, one day, I spied a female cardinal ramming herself into the window. Clearly, she saw her reflection, thought it was another cardinal, and was fighting for territory. OK, we thought, it's annoying now, but eventually she'll figure out that it's a window, not another bird, and stop trying to give herself a concussion.
Well, it's been a few years since then, and the cardinal is still ramming herself against the window. We've all come to the conclusion that this is an exceptionally stupid cardinal, and all secretly hope that one day it'll whack itself a little too hard. But I recently came up with a new theory: Negative Feedback Loop. It's like this: the cardinal thinks there's another bird in her territory, so she attacks, only to ram her head into our living room window. She doesn't pick up on the fact that it's a window very quickly (she's a cardinal, after all), so keeps doing it. Pretty soon, she's rammed her head into the window so much that she's actually damaged her brain, so she can't figure out that it's a window, not a bird. So, she keeps ramming herself into the window, and damaging her brain even more. It's a vicious cycle.
In other news, somehow, without fail, every night, my bed ends up looking like this:
and I have to clean all of it off if I want to sleep. I really try to not pile junk on my bed, but it just happens. This is one reason why my bed's lofted at Miami: no piles of junk (on the bed that is, there are certainly piles of junk on the desk, chair, ottoman, and dresser, but those would have happened with or without loft).
I finished experimenting with navajo ply a week or so ago, see:
Well, it's been a few years since then, and the cardinal is still ramming herself against the window. We've all come to the conclusion that this is an exceptionally stupid cardinal, and all secretly hope that one day it'll whack itself a little too hard. But I recently came up with a new theory: Negative Feedback Loop. It's like this: the cardinal thinks there's another bird in her territory, so she attacks, only to ram her head into our living room window. She doesn't pick up on the fact that it's a window very quickly (she's a cardinal, after all), so keeps doing it. Pretty soon, she's rammed her head into the window so much that she's actually damaged her brain, so she can't figure out that it's a window, not a bird. So, she keeps ramming herself into the window, and damaging her brain even more. It's a vicious cycle.
In other news, somehow, without fail, every night, my bed ends up looking like this:
and I have to clean all of it off if I want to sleep. I really try to not pile junk on my bed, but it just happens. This is one reason why my bed's lofted at Miami: no piles of junk (on the bed that is, there are certainly piles of junk on the desk, chair, ottoman, and dresser, but those would have happened with or without loft).
I finished experimenting with navajo ply a week or so ago, see:
I'm currently plying another mini-skein (the one pictured is about 10g, 16yds, worsted or DK). The current one is also navajo ply, mainly because if I did a 2-ply it would turn out laceweight, and 3-ply it's a light fingering, so I might be able to use it for mini-socks. I'm quite proud of being able to spin lace-singles on my fourth go, even if it's not entirely even yet (I'm working on it).
Also, I finished the first sock of my epic Zauberball stripes. Go ahead, be jealous. Who wouldn't want socks this awesome?
