Incoherent Scribblings

Wow! Has it been a busy week! Last week I decided that next fall (2006) I want to go back to the university: This time to get my computer linguistics degree. It falls neatly into my language background and my information science education so I am really excited.

However, since I am in Germany I have to pass the Test of German as a Foreign Language to get admitted into the university. And in order to do this, I need to go back to language school for some refresher courses. So, I have spent this week running around and making all the arrangements so that I can go back to language school starting Monday.

This unfortunately has drastically cut into my stitching and blogging time (Note to self: Must figure out how to go to school, stitch, blog, AND still get some sleep now and again!) and though I have managed to keep up with my 90 minute-a-day stitch goal, that is about all I have done.

I did, however, finish my Teddy Bear RR Square. It took a bit longer than planned because I really did have to make up the backstitching as I went along. Therefore I had to frog, frog, and frog some more before I was happy with the end result. But I finally did finish it and I am pretty satisfied with the outcome. The RR doesn’t need to be posted until October 10 though, so now I can focus on my exchanges.

I have worked a little more on my needleroll exchange but when I went to pick it up last night I realized that someone must not have gotten all the chocolate off her fingers before picking up her stitching last. Therefore, I have to wash the needleroll before I can work on it again.

I also received my name for the Halloween exchange yesterday (or was it the day before? I can’t remember now) so I need to make a final decision on the pattern I want to do. I have some ideas, but I need to look at my partner’s gallery and read through her likes and dislikes to get a better idea of what she might like.

I must confess that I don’t know her, her stitching, or even her blog very well. (Even though she does answer the SBQ from time to time and I always visit an SBQers blog if they leave me a comment saying that they have answered.) That is one thing that really has me excited about these exchanges: Getting to know my fellow stitching bloggers better!

Oh, and speaking of the SBQ… I have a question for this week but since I have been so busy I haven’t had a chance yet to post it. Since I am all done with my language school preparations now I will be home all day tomorrow and I will post it then. Sorry for any delays, but you know how sometimes life gets in the way of stitching (and blogging for that matter).

It took a lot less time to download all my music onto my new iAudio player than I thought so I had plenty of time to stitch this weekend! Yeah!

“Passing Admirers” has been put away for now because yesterday I received the name of my needleroll partner. I had a sampler that I was going to stitch, but once I got my partner’s name, I completely changed my mind!

Actually, when I was browsing through my stash trying to get needleroll ideas a few days ago I came across something that I thought would be perfect for a particular person if I ever got her name. And what do you know? As luck would have it, I got her name! (This pattern will make a cute needleroll, but I could have done other things with it too.)

I was so excited that I sat right down with my new iAudio player and got to work: And boy does the stitching time really zip by when the music is going and the needles are flying! Before I knew it, it was past midnight!

I was all geared up to work more on the needleroll today, but when I went downstairs to start the laundry this afternoon I peeked into my mailbox and found that the next installment of the EMS RR had been delivered yesterday. I still had plans to do the needleroll at that point, but when I opened the RR and saw the cute little teddies that had been stitched so far I couldn’t wait to start mine… so I didn’t!

The teddy bear that I am stitching for this robin is a freebie that I got from the DMC International site. I am completely changing the colors because the recommended colors for this bear are a yellowish-orange that I find absolutely appalling. The bear is cute otherwise and I think it will fit in with the other bears on this robin very well. I am about 3 ½ hours into it and approximately 50% done.

I am a bit frustrated with this pattern though: I have a whole bunch of patterns that I have downloaded from DMC International, but this is the first one I have ever stitched and I must say that the key isn’t very clear. The symbols are fine, but the connection between the symbols and the DMC numbers is vague and I am not sure about the backstitching; there are numbers that I think are the colors for the backstitch, but there are just arrows pointing at certain areas and no backstitch lines, so I am not sure.

Since I am changing the colors of this pattern it isn’t a big issue (I am making it up as I go along ;)), but if I stitch anymore of these freebies and the keys are similarly confusing, it could be.

Given that the RR Teddy is stitching up so quickly I will probably go ahead and finish it up before focusing my attention on the needleroll for the rest of the coming week. Therefore, enjoy the pictures of the RR Teddy because I won’t be able to share any needleroll pictures until the exchange is complete!

The topic of this week’s “Booking Through Thursday” is fantasy and in answer to the first question, “Do you like to read fantasy?,” my answer is a resounding YES!

I wouldn’t go so far as to say I exclusively read fantasy, but probably at least 60% of what I read can be placed in the fantasy genre. Of course, for me fantasy is a very broad genre. It includes “classic” types of fantasy, but I tend to lump science fiction and most “horror” into the fantasy genre as well. For example, I consider Anne Rice, Stephen King, and J.K. Rowling to be fantasy authors.

The second question is: “What’s your favorite thing about reading fantasy?” I would have to say the best thing about reading fantasy is that I am transported to another world. It seems like an easy answer, but I know people who don’t like to read fiction for this very reason. Reading is the hobby that I have had the longest and is something that I do for entertainment. Therefore, when I read I like to escape from this world and go to another. I accomplish this by reading genres such as fantasy and historical fiction.

Question number three is: “Do you prefer regular people placed in alternate realities, like the Thomas Covenant stories and the Amber books, or do you prefer the whole world to come from the author’s imagination? Or something else?” Actually, I prefer fantastical characters to fantastical settings. I am not too particular about where these characters are placed, as long as it fits the story. For example, I just finished reading Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper, a book based on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale where Beauty is half fairy, half mortal and is transported back and forth not only between the “real” and “fairy” worlds, but also between centuries. This could have been awkward, but given the underlying message of the book it was necessary and Tepper did a good job of seamlessly moving Beauty from one world to another and from one century to another.

And lastly, “Do you have a favorite author or theme that you go back to again and again?” I am a big fan of book series and so when I come across a new series I not only make sure I read all of the books in the series, but in order. In addition to that, Anne Rice is definitely my favorite author and not only do I read her old books over and over again; I also read the new ones as they come out. I can’t say that I really have a favorite theme though. I just pick up whatever trips my trigger: usually it is some type of fantasy or historical fiction and the protagonist is female, but not always.

Since I was at a good stopping place, I decided to put “Passing Admirers” aside for the time being and move on to “Stiefmütterchen,” my SAL with Susie, while I wait to get my needleroll exchange partner’s name. (It is supposed to be coming tomorrow!)

Susie did her fourth pansy earlier this week and because I want to keep up with our stitch along, I decided that it was time to tackle my fourth pansy too. This pretty little blue-violet pansy stitched up in only 4 ½ hours and is my favorite of all the pansies that I have stitched so far.

I started it last night before I went to bed and finished it up this afternoon while I did volunteer duty at the English Language Library here in Munich. The library is not very big: it consists of two rooms crammed full of English language paperbacks, but is quite popular with the English-speaking community in Munich.

We are only open from 3 pm to 6 pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and on a typical afternoon only two or three patrons will stop by. It is quite a peaceful way to spend my afternoon (the library is in the back of a church!), but the time can go a bit slowly (even with all the books to read). So today I decided to bring my stitching along and between customers I managed to finish Pansy #4 about half an hour before we closed.

Before I went to the library today I also did a quick stash run and bought some 27 count white Linda (I was out because I dyed all that I previously had purple) and some 27 count RICO Tessin black Evenweave. Normally I don’t like to stitch on black fabric, but in the spirit of the season, I think I want to stitch my Halloween exchange on black. (I hope I am allowed to mention that here.)

I am not sure how much stitching or blogging I will get done this weekend because I just got a new toy, a 30G iAudio jukebox (It’s like an iPod, only better) that I will probably spend the weekend filling up with music.

So, if it is quiet here for some days, have a great weekend everyone!

Today’s post is brought to you by Expatica.com!

I have never been against recycling: When you think about the amount of garbage an average person produces in a day, week, month, or year and how much of that garbage could easily be recycled into something new, recycling is obviously a socially responsible thing to do.

However, at the same time, up until three years ago I never lived anywhere that had a decent, convenient, or even mandatory recycling system. So, with the exception of when I lived in Iowa and got 5 cents for every (soda) pop can I returned, I am a little ashamed to admit that until I moved to Germany I never recycled.

But thanks in large part to the Green Party, Germany has not only a serious recycling program, it is mandatory. Nevertheless, though recycling is mandatory here, it is also one of those things that an expat might not find out about until it is too late.

When A. and I moved to our village outside of Munich and registered with city hall, they gave us a packet of information about our little town, but it only included the location and opening hours of what we thought was the city dump. We noticed the “yellow bags,” but dismissed them as mere garbage bags.

For the first three or four weeks we were here, we spent most of our time at IKEA and various other stores buying furniture and other necessary items for our apartment. The packaging obviously produced a lot of cardboard, styrofoam, and plastic trash and we happily carried it down to the dumpster without so much as a second thought.

My dishes and cooking equipment had not yet arrived, so we ate out most of the time and didn’t really produce a lot of what I like to call “nasty” garbage like potato peelings, rotten meat, or moldy bread. We did produce a lot of “packaging” garbage like milk cartons, but once again we just threw them away, barely noticing the “Grüne Punkt” visibly stamped on their sides.

One morning though, as we were lugging our latest IKEA junk pile down to the dumpster, we ran into our “Hausmeister” (or maintenance man) and he confronted us. At the time I didn’t speak any German, so I didn’t know what was going on, but A. informed me we had been throwing away our cardboard “improperly” and without any further explanation, he told me that we needed to take our cardboard back upstairs.

Later A. told me that in his discussion with the Haumeister, he had been informed all about Germany’s “Recycling Rules.” We learned that what we thought was merely the dump, was actually the city’s recycling area and it was there we were supposed to take cardboard, old wood, bottles, and paper… among other things. It was also there that we could get the famous yellow bags (for free). Once we had the yellow bags, we were supposed to put things with the “Grüne Punkt” into them and they would be collected once a month.

We were warned that it was imperative that we follow Germany’s “Recycling Rules” because you never know when your dumpsters might get a visit from the “Recycling Police!”

Apparently, the “Recycling Police” are much feared here because their sole responsibility is to go through garbage and if they find stuff in the “nasty garbage” that should have been recycled, dispense fines. And since in an apartment building it is nearly impossible to tell whose garbage is whose, the “Recycling Police” will punish an entire building for one family’s garbage negligence. This, of course, will not make you very popular with your neighbors and if they find out that it was you that caused the fine, your stay in the apartment building will be uncomfortable, to say the very least.

As far as I know, our building has never been visited by the “Recycling Police,” or if it has, they were satisfied with what they found. However, if they ever do decide to poke through our dumpsters, thanks to our gruff Hausmeister, A. and I can rest assured that it is not our garbage that is to blame.