Happy Birthday, Altair

It’s my sister-in-law’s birthday today! She’s so smart and capable, just an all-around good person. If last year’s theme was, “How does she do it all?”, this year’s theme is, “Wow, she just does it all so well.”

She’s just so competent. Doc and I are in the process of getting wills/trusts together for each other and I didn’t even have to think about who I wanted to be in charge of everything after him: I know Altair can and will do it.

She started volunteering with Skyler’s CAP division, which somehow required her learning how to fly drones, which meant she had to get FAA-certified. She pretty much shrugged, learned how to read flight maps, studied for her test, and got it done.

She just finished another post-grad degree, which required a couple years of weekends and another thesis, which I got to read. I’m no PLM specialist but even I understood that the methods she was proposing were really smart and innovative.

What a smart, capable, loving human she is! We’re lucky to have her in our lives. Happy birthday, we love you.

Thinking About Textured Vests

I haven’t bought yarn for a bright stripe sweater because 1) I’m still worried about making something that would be too itchy to wear and 2) I discovered almost a sweater’s worth of neutral beige yarn in the stash. It’s 100% wool and also neutral, which is why it never got made into a sweater, but maybe it could make a nice vest?

I like this basket weave one a lot but I’d need to get another lightweight yarn to carry with the yarn I have to get gauge, which defeats the purpose of using up yarn without buying anything. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This one would work without buying anything but I’m not sure about the style–it’s not cabled, not one texture, not a full sweater, not a traditional vest shape. I think it would be fun to knit, though. 

Ice Palaces

There hasn’t been been fresh snow in the mountains for a week or so but it’s been cold enough that the old snow has stayed on branches and collected frost, making some extraordinary crystals. I kept expecting the see the White Witch come around the corner in her sledge.

Friday Links

1. Did I click through The Catalog Blog and want to look at most things? Yes. Is the J. Peterman catalog in there? Of course!

 

2. Speaking of ephemera, this recipe booklet/story book is astonishing–it rhymes, the art is exquisite and also just plain weird: The Prince of the Gelatin Isles from 1926.

 

3. I don’t want to get put on a watchlist so I’m not going to share a lot of what I’m seeing about the United Healthcare CEO, but I thought this summary by journalist Taylor Lorenz was good.

“People have very justified hatred toward insurance company CEOs because these executives are responsible for an unfathomable amount of death and suffering. I think it’s good to call out this broken system and the people in power who enable it. Again, not so they can be murdered, but so that we can change the system and start holding people in power accountable for their actions.”

 

4. OK, I do have to post this though. That last line!

@philiplabesAnd medical violence is always wrong, but only when it flows one way

♬ original sound – Philip Labes

Let’s Talk About Face Blindness

I learned the terms prosopagnosia–or face blindness–probably in my early thirties (I think because I was reading about Oliver Sacks, who both had it and wrote a book about an extreme case). A few years before then, I was talking to my BFF about a dream, and said, “You know how people’s faces in dreams are never really faces, they’re just a blur?” and he said, “No, that’s not how most people dream faces.”

I’m entirely self-diagnosed and in my 30s, the main tests out there were to check for the appercetive type, in which you don’t recognize ANYONE. I can recognize people but most of it’s from external cues–beards, hair, voices, clothing style, they’re where I expect to see them, etc.

I randomly decided to read the Wikipedia article about face blindness last night and learned that there’s a developmental type of prosopagnosia, too, which sounds like my case: It’s not an utter inability to recognize people, it’s just hard; it’s been around from birth; and it might even be genetic?

There’s even a newer test out there to screen for the milder types and wow, did that confirm my self-diagnosis:

There’s nothing to be done about it and, because my brain doesn’t know anything else, it’s not bothersome; it’s just an interesting neural thing (maybe something didn’t develop in the fusiform face area of my brain? Yes, I went on a deep dive last night). But thinking of my own history and just assuming everyone was like this, I thought, “Let’s talk about it!”

Wednesday Project Roundup: Pattern Testing Pics

I got some more pictures of the pattern I tested, which is releasing today: The Monty Pant from Daughter Judy.

Since testing, the designer has made the fit a little smaller overall and refined the zipper placket instructions, so you shouldn’t have any of the issues I did. Like I said before, I don’t think I would have picked this shape but I really love it. It helps that there’s an elastic-back waist and lots of room in the hip, but I also just like the vibes: a little 80s, a little modern I kind of want a corduroy pair now.

I just don’t wear office clothes any more so I styled these the way I’d actually wear them, but I think they’d really work with ankle boots and a button up, too.

Anyway, pattern testing was fun! Expanding my style horizons and getting to provide written opinions, what’s not to love?

Primitive Human Times

My recovery last week was similar to the progress of early humans: Not leaving the warm cave, deciding to try some cave paintings, venturing briefly into the surrounding area, and finally going on a real journey away from the cave.

The ablation itself didn’t cause me a lot of trouble or pain, but the anesthesia hangover made Tuesday and even some of Wednesday a wash. My energy levels aren’t quite 100% (I think I had a nap after every trip out of the save) but we’re getting there.

Monday Memes

I forgot to mention on Friday that I wasn’t going to post this week–tomorrow is the ablation and then it’s knitting on the couch and re-watching 80s trilogies. So have some more ephemera for the week and I’ll see you on the other side.


(A spread from Austin Kleon’s Keep Going)

Maybe I’ll see you at the Utah State Capitol Sunday? “We will have many diverse speakers from throughout the SLC protest community, as well as a Druid grove opening ritual“? Sign me up!