kareina

Given that our shire hosted Drachenwald's Coronation in January, none of us felt up to also running our normal annual spring event JMB (short for Jungfru Maria Bebådelsedagsgille, which google translates as "Virgin Mary Annunciation Day party"), which typically has 20 to 40 people spending the full weekend at a site a half hour or so inland. But neither did we want to do nothing at all, so Keldor suggested that we do a JMB lite event here at our house, and created a FB event for, it and we even dropped it on the Kingdom Calendar, on the off chance that anyone who isn't on FB might go looking to see if we are doing something.

Between deciding to do that and now I got that tuition bill from the university, which, even though we worked out that I am correct, I do, in fact, have till the end of spring term before my funding runs out, nonetheless put me into panic thesis mode, trying to finish all of my data processing and write all the words for the thesis as fast as possible, so that I don't have to pay £2,500 a term (which, given I have no income just now, is not something I wish to do). Due to the limited amount of funded time available my thesis advisor and I agreed that, rather than doing the degree as the PhD we had originally planned, I should just down-grade to a Master's, which is a more easily achievable thesis format in a short time.

Then I saw that ad for funding, aimed at supporting two individuals who are in their final, otherwise unfunded, year of writing up their PhD results, and I dared to start dreaming again. An entire year to finish up converting all of data to a thesis would make it possible to get that second PhD after all, and would be fun, and, I think, my contribution to the science is worth the higher degree.

The funding application is straight forward: turn in a 2 page CV, a 500-word Thesis Summary, a 750 word General Interest Pitch, and... a three-minute video introducing myself and my research.

I have never edited a video in my life, and have almost never filmed video, so why not try? (I have filmed some acroyoga training, as it is a good way to look at what we are doing, and figure out what is going wrong and what we need to do different to make the pose work, and, when it does work, it is fun to have a record of it.)

Yannick of Normandy, in Insulae Draconis (he who did the wonderful trailers for Drachenwald's On-line Kingdom University Event), was kind enough to give me a two hour zoom call wherein he taught me the basics in using Lightworks, by having me edit together a couple of random segments of two of my acroyoga films, so that I could learn how to add film clips to a project, how to move them, how to select a subset of them, and discard the rest, how to overlay one over the other, with a dissolve transition from one to the next, and how to zoom and pan, and how to add a title. The result was a very short film using all of those skills, but, because it was randomly chosen bits, wasn't worth keeping.

Then I went to Luleå for my last week of work, working long days, so I practiced none of those skills directly after learning them. On my bus ride home, after doing filming of me in front of a greenscreen talking of my thesis reading a script, talking of it without a script, and even reading both the Thesis Summary and the General Interest Pitch (which gave me 45 minutes worth of film, in which I hope I have enough for the three minute film), I started thinking of the whole pan and zoom thing Yannick taught me.

I had always assumed that the panning and zooming in the yoga app videos was done by moving the camera, but, now that I have learned the skill, I understand that it is probably just video editing. However, I felt that this tool much be good to call attention to specific details in graphs or maps in my research. Then I suddenly felt inspired: GoogleEarth! That program has wonderful fly-in to your chosen location feature. But how to get that from that program into the video editing program? So I asked google, and sure enough, there are tutorials to do just that, and, it turns out, I didn't even need to use a third-party software for the screen recording, Windows has a built-in low end model, that works well enough, if you are willing to use the editor's zoom into the part of the screen you want, rather than selecting that portion before recording.

What does all this have to do with the mini SCA event at our house, you ask? Well, I got home late Thursday evening (where "home" = Keldor's dad's house in Skelleftehamn, since that is MUCH closer to the bus stop than our place is). Friday Keldor went to work, and I set to work transcribing all of my films I had made the day before, including noting where I stuttered, and if I added hand gestures, so that when I get to the part where I add me to the film, I can quickly grab the correct film to pull the words I need from. (In an ideal world I would have had a complete film plan and script done in advance, so I could have just recorded the words that would be used, in several takes, rather than needing to also record lots of additional stuff, as I just don't know yet exactly where the film is going. Apparently, I grow film projects in the same, barely planned organic way I approach most of my sewing and embroidery projects, with a strong "I will figure it out as I go" component).

I got all but one of them transcribed before he finished work for the day, and we packed up the cats and did the 35 minute drive home and got everything unpacked and put away. Then I settled to the computer with that final transcription, till time for the zoom meeting for the Drachenwald 30 Year songbook project, where I confessed that I had accomplished nothing for the project since our last meeting, due to thesis focus mode, and we delegated parts of the things I had hoped to do to others (thanks others!). As I listened to the meeting, I went to the web page where they are collecting the bits that are done, and tested pulling the list into Scrivener, copying in the plain lyrics, and adding clickable links to the various versions of each song (phf, sheet music, with chords, midi) where they exist. The meeting lasted long enough I got as far as the Ms. Then, as the meeting wrapped up, I exported the result to an epub, and sent it to the others, wondering if they think it is worth also doing an epub version of the song book. Then, at events with poor internet access one could still have the songbook in a format that is easy to read on a phone or a tablet, and, if the access is good, one could click through to the web page.

I have been wanting an epub songbook for ages, and haven't taken the time to sit down and do it. It really isn't hard to do, and would be fairly fast to just drop the old word doc for the Oerthan songbook into scrivener and convert it. It is just finding the time. The only reason doing the Drachwneald 30 Year songbook takes longer is the part about coping in the links to the other version. No one has replied to that shared file yet, so I have no idea if it is only me who likes the idea of epub, or if the idea is worth pursuing.

After the meeting I finished my transcription and got ready for bed, glad that we didn't have a normal JMB, as I would have missed all of the Friday night part of the event for work. The event announcement Keldor had done said that the event would start at 10:00 on Saturday, by which time I was sitting at the computer, happily experimenting with recording GoogleEarth fly-in to a quarry location, and fading from there to a photo of the rock from the quarry, fading to a photo of the crystal from the rock that I analysed, fading to the maps for each of the interesting elements for that crystal, one at a time (gee, it is GREAT to see the maps replacing one another like that--one very clearly sees the difference in distribution of each element!!!!).

As a result, when the first guests arrived, I don't know how much time later, I waved hello from the computer, and kept woking. A while later I was hungry, so I went out, chatted briefly with the first two visitors, accompanied them and Keldor on a tour of the house, ate some lunch, and went straight back to the computer to work.

At 15:00, I finished my first short sample film clip, which you can see on google drive here, or on FB here. So I put on some SCA garb, my hearing aids, and went out to the kitchen to discover that a number of others had arrived, so I shared with them my short film, had some dinner, during which I took of the dress I had put on, because it was too warm, and just the linen undertunic, to which I added my cotton flannel Thorsberg trousers, was more comfortable.

But as soon as I had finished eating, I returned to the computer to see how much time film # 2 would take, now that I know how to do it. That first film took five hours, the second, which you can see on google drive here (or on the same fb link, since I just edited the first post to add the next), took only 3, so clearly I am getting faster. Now I wonder how I can automate this? It must be possible to set up a template, and just drop in the sample photos and stuff from a folder, so that every sample has the exact same approach, making it easier to play the films side by side and see the differences.

When I came back out to the kitchen it was full! Well, ok, there were only 9 people, including me, and two dogs (our cats declined to join the party, but stayed hidden in the bedroom), but the kitchen is small, making it seem like a larger event than it really was. I hung out with them, and then gave Helena a tour of the house, then Lena and I did some yoga in the living room, and there was more hanging out and swapping stories.

Then I felt inspired to finally cut the fabric for a much lighter weight pair of Thorsberg trousers. I have a really light weight white cotton fabric, with a blue print that looks rather 12th Century in motief, that we found at a second hand store ages ago, and I thought at the time it would make some lovely Thorsberg trousers for wearing under a split-skirt bliaut, but I hadn't gotten around to doing anything with it. Because the fabric is so thin I wanted to line at least the square but panel and crotch rectangle with another fabric, but I didn't have anything in my stash that was an appropriate weight. So I looked in the mending pile, and saw an old light weight black cotton skirt that has been languishing waiting for someone to sew shut the rip in the fabric for ages, and saw that it was exactly the same weight as the blue printed white cotton fabric. Having survived for months without the skirt, I decided that it would make a great lining, so, since the party was just in the kitchen at that time, I claimed the living room floor for fabric cutting (and was able to cut out all the pieces without help from the cats, who were still keeping to the bedroom for reasons of people, and probably especially, dogs, in the house).

I got the pieces cut, and, since the fabric piece wasn't, quite, long enough to go from waist to ankle, but was wide enough to have extra fabric over in the middle after removing the butt and crotch pieces, I added an extra wide waist band. That chunk of extra fabric was wide enough to line up the pattern exactly, so at any distance at all, one won't see that there is even a seam there. So I started sewing the first waist band to the first leg, and left the other pieces spread out over the floor, so I wouldn't loose track of which side was up for the other leg and waist extension, and took my sewing to the next room to be sociable again.

Of course, this was around the time that some people were deciding to head home, so instead of joining folk in the kitchen, I stood, stitching in hand, talking in the entry area, as they got ready to go (and shouted twice "don't step on the sewing project on the floor!" to Keldor and the guy he was showing off all of the swords, spears, and axes that line the living room wall with. (Really, with no one, not even cats, in the room at all, it had felt safe to leave it spread out during the short time I sewed those two pieces together. Nope.)

I got the first two bits sewed together during the time we were doing goodbyes with the first group departing, and started the next set as we hung out with the last couple of folk. After they, too, left, I put down my sewing, and did a bit more tidying up after company (the guests had helped with dishwashing before departing, which was truly appreciated), crawling into bed just after 01:00. As I was setting the dawn light to get up at 06:00 for my fortnightly call with my sisters, Keldor reminded me that it was the night for the change to daylight savings, so we would soon "spring forward" an hour. So I reset the clock on the dawn light to show that it was already 02:00, and went to sleep.

When dawn went off I might have considered sleeping, but Skaði wanted breakfast, so I got up, fed her, and sat down at the computer, where I had a great time catching up with my sisters, sharing my videos with them, and getting some edits for the funding application text, as well as working on my new sewing project and hearing what they are up to.

Then I went back to bed, and slept for three more hours, which was seriously needed, during which time Keldor took this cute photo of Skaði and I:

When D. got home from work today we took a sauna. Been a while since we bothered to turn it on, it was nice. Then I did a nice long yoga session, holding poses for 45 seconds each. Then we sorted fabric.

Up until today our fabric stash was sorted first by fiber (linen vs wool for the most part), then by colour. However, since our shire has a Viking costuming workshop this weekend, we thought it might make sense to bring some fabric with us for projects, and, of course, this made us wonder what pieces of fabric are personal property of one of us and not available, and which ones were generally available.

So we took it all out, organized it into piles, printed labels to pin onto each piece, and put them all back. Now there is one cabinet of wool and linen (all of decent, but not stunning quality) that is generally available for whomever feels for using it first, one cabinet for my "don't touch" really nice stuff I got at Visby this summer, and all of the other bits that belong to me, but might be available for someone else if they ask. The next cupboard is for fabric that belongs to both D. and I that might be available, but you'd have to ask both of us, plus the stuff that belongs to him that you have to ask about, and the final cupboard for the stuff that belongs to C., also labeled as to if it is just hers, or if you are free to ask if interested. So much nice fabric, need more sewing time. However, before I finish any new costumes we really should get to that part about making a larger closet for the costumes...

In other news, the weather has been horrid, again. It warmed up above freezing, again, and the snow is melting enough that the walkways are not so pleasant. I miss real winters. Meanwhile my friends in the states are complaining, because they got the snow I wanted.

Now I should head to bed and get some sleep.

When last I posted we were pretty much done with our time in Glasgow( , where the post office wanted what I thought was too much money. )So we wound up paying way more than if we had just posted the darn thing from Glasgow. If only we had known that the first flight was with a "partner" airline, we would have checked their web page.

However, despite the huge fee to bring home the stuff that has been at clovis_t's house for a year, I am still delighted to have it here. What did I rescue? Fabric! Some black wool of the same sort that we used to make my light-weight winter coat, which we will probably use to make him one as well (this is fabric I brought with me from Australia--one of the few pieces of my fabric that hadn't been in the suitcase that the shippers lost on the move to Italy. Linen! ( which I got in trade and hadn't seen yet ) 1 small box which contained miscellaneous yarn and sewing accessories, and my old computer.

The only problem with bringing this stuff home is that the shelves in the kitchen where the fabric and sewing stuff lives was already full. However, I lead a charmed life. On Wednesday lord_kjar and I got to go looting. The company for which he works has been moving to a new location (which, much to our delight, is only a 15 minute walk from our home, just beyond the uni, so he can walk to work with me in the morning). They are an IT company that fixes and maintains computer systems for other companies, and years ago part of that service included fixing some of the internal bits that, these days, are simply replaced. Therefore they had some stacks of wooden drawers that used to be necessary for holding small replacement parts which were no longer needed. So, with the permission of his boss, we went on a raid and came home with those drawers, a set of sturdy wooden shelves, a coat rack, and a cart on wheels.

The cart is now in the server closet holding the tourney chest and large wicker box that we keep food in at camping events, which makes it easier to move them aside to get to the garb hanging from the rack that is also in that closet. The bookshelf is awaiting the departure of the boxes of darkroom stuff from the corner of the living room, and the set of small drawers is sitting on the chest of drawers in the hallway, with the massage table above them.

The drawers turn out to be perfect for organizing stuff. There are 3 dozen drawers in the stack. They are long enough that one of them contains rulers and drafting supplies. Their depth is perfect for organizing spools of thread (cut lengths of cardboard split the drawers into four troughs so that thread stays in nice, colour-coordinated order. Another drawer now has scissors, wax, tailor's chalk, and other sewing accessories. We have one for embroidery floss, one for ink and calligraphy stuff, one for drawing supplies, another for ordinary pens and pencils. Some contain nails and screws and the like, while others contain small boxes of tools. We have only filled just over half of the drawers so far, which is good, because I am certain that further cleaning and organizing will yield more things that need to go into them.

Can I tell you how nice it is to be living with someone who agrees that a fun thing to do on a Friday evening is to clean and organize stuff? It is fun to work together, one cutting cardboard strips, the other inserting them into drawers and arranging the thread in colour order (one drawer for the good threads (cotton, linen, and silk), and one for the bad threads which are still useful for temporary basting stuff together (cotton-covered poly and polyester). We see eye to eye on questions like what things go into the same drawer, and what needs different drawers. Once we'd done filling drawers we had enough room on the shelves to put the fabric on them, and the kitchen table was clean and empty for the first time in weeks, and we were both happy!

I am terribly pleased with the luck we have had in finding free or cheap furniture to help organize our stuff since I moved in. Oddly enough, each time we have acquired a new piece we think that it makes a huge difference to have it, but that the house is now full, and there is no more room for other new furniture, but then we find another, realize that there is, in fact room for it, and there is, and it makes a huge improvement. But this time I think that we really are full and don't have room for anything else...

Today I finally purchased my train tickets for next week's trip to Zürich for the writing workshop. While there I determined that yes, it would make more sense to purchase plane tickets for the confrence in Vienna in May than to take the train--the train is a 12 hour trip for about twice the cost of a flight. Now I just need to find the energy to wrestle with airline web pages.

While I was at the train station I decided to head to the fabric store that is just across the street. This was the first time I'd been in there, and I was quite impressed with the quantity of natural fibres they have available--silk, linen, and wool. I managed to talk myself out of getting anything on the rolls of fabric, even though the prices were on par with what I've seen in Berkely, San Franscisco, and Sydney in the past year, but the bins of remanants were a bit too tempting. They have them sorted by fibre type (yay!) and I found several nice, Medieval looking wools, in the bin labeled "1.55 €". When I went to pay, it turns out that the remnants are priced by mass, not length (which makes it easy on them, just dump it on the scale. So the roughly 7 or 8 meters of 150 cm wide wool (three different colours/patterns) came to only 36 € total. I'm looking forward to measuring it later and working out exactly what I did pay per meter...

Today's big scare was opening up the collection of salt/graphite/MgO in which my little gold capsules were nested for the experiment and not finding the capsules. I broke it into very small pieces and ruffled through the pile several times, to no avail. I looked at the pile and decided there was less MgO than I thought there should be (that is the part which is in direct contact with the capsules), so I went and checked the little padded chamber under the piston-driven machine with which we push the nest out of the large metal "bomb" in which it gets subjected to pressure during the experimental run. Nope, nothing got left there. Checked the trash can nearest that machine, on the off chance that something had been left there and someone else tossed it. Nope, nothing. Checked the pile of graphite/salt/MgO debris on the piece of paper again. Still no little gold capsules (recall that by "little" I mean a pre-deformed size of 2 mm diameter, and not more than 6 mm long). Checked the padded catching box under the piston machine again. Nope. Checked the trash can again. Nothing. Checked the pile of debris on the paper again. Nope. Checked the floor in that area. Nothing. Gave up, carefully folded the debris into the paper and put it into a box in my drawer of experiments and went looking for a co-worker. Couldn't find him either. E-mailed said co-worker a worried note asking him to please check with me when next he is in--that I'd like nothing better than for someone to say "Are you blind? They are right here".

Shortly thereafter clovis_t came in to uni, and I told him of my plight, and persuaded him to come be a second set of eyes. Showed him the machine (still nothing), and got out the paper, carefully unfolded it, and demonstrated how most of the bits are chunks of compressed salt, and too small to hide the capsules, even if they'd been in contact with them, whcih they weren't. Then, as I pushed aside a really small bit of MgO, pointing out that it was too small to hide the capsules, I suddenly spotted a small hard white thing (the MgO is whiter than is the salt), poked at it, and realized that it was one of my elusive gold capsules. Poked around a bit more and found the second. Yay, clovis_t to the rescue--the darn things weren't there before, I swear it, but they came back when he came to look for them...

Other good news for the day includes receiving the check from the Tasmanian shipping company to pay for the repair of my trike tire. This makes me very happy. Other than the one damaged item I was pretty pleased with their service, and wouldn't have liked it if they'd tried to get out of making that good.

Other work progress includes creating another slide for my talk for the April confrence in France. Yes, one. When one wishes to add a scale bar to the photos, and wants the photos to all be in the same scale these things take longer than when one only wants the slide to be pretty.

It is only 18:30, and I think I'm going to be different and head home and enjoy some non-uni time with the rest of the day. I'm currently averaging 36.7 hours/week of uni work (not counting any breaks to check mail or heat up food or any run to the toilet), so I think I can afford the break.