So, I’ve been thinking about math lately. This is weird, I know. Who thinks about math? Math teachers, I suppose. Mathematicians. And… geeks. I guess. Like me. *shamed*

Anyway, I got to thinking about this because, say, my fourth grade math teacher actually reads and comments occasionally on my blog. Wow. Who knew math teachers knit? ;-) I don’t remember much about 4th grade math class, granted, except one thing: Mad Minutes. This is where you have a sheet filled with math problems (easy stuff, it’s gradeschool, come on…) and you have to do as many as humanly possible in one minute.

I don’t know if anyone else in the world ever did these, or if this was just our thing, but these suckers implanted themselves in my brain, and to this day, I do very little of anything repetitive (say, knitting…) without looking at the clock, and then trying to do as much as I can in one minute, I kid you not. Then, worse, I try to beat my “score” every time. I tell you, I can trace it all back to math class…

Along those lines, BrainAge, for Nintendo DS, has this “cute” (harhar) little game where you do tons of little math problems as quickly as possible, JUST LIKE THE MAD MINUTES. And why is it that I can never remember, no matter how many times I try, whether 8×7 is 54 or 56? Likewise, 9×6 always messes me up too… *shakes head* Brain Age also has a lot of much more evil minigames, like the “count how many people are remaining in the house as they fly in and out super fast” game. I really suck that one up, I’ll tell you….

Also, math in general is on my mind, because gosh, come August, when I go back to school, I’m gonna have to see how much algebra I actually remember. And then… probably take classes, because really, about the only algebra I really remember is *really* basic algebra. You know, “70% of X = 120″ type stuff, which, I confess, I use all the time. But college level algebra? Never needed it. Don’t use it. Don’t remember it. Gah, taking lots of math classes….

But maybe I’ll do a good search online for some sort of remedial algebra sites or something and see if I can dust off my brain and brush up and maybe pass the placement exams and survive without having to pay lots of money. There’s an idea! If only I hadn’t sold my math textbook back to the college way back when…

I realize that my birthday is still a month away, March 26. But in the event that anyone who’s interested in getting me something absolutely spectacular, here’s some things I’ve been lusting after lately:

Notice a lot of knitting things? A friend said I needed a 12-Step program, but… I think those are for people who want to quit, aren’t they?

However, much as I want most of these things, it’s highly likely that I won’t be getting any yarn from anyone I know. I’ve never gotten yarn as a gift before, except from two special out-of-state friends. I guess people who are around my yarn habit don’t feel the need to feed it? Who knows. People don’t buy me books either, or they haven’t, anyway, since childhood. Sad days!

But, speaking of gifts, and especially generous ones at that, a friend of my father’s, RL, has heard on the grapevine (aka, my father must’ve mentioned it) that I want to learn to spin. I told the parents once that if they came across a spinning wheel ever, to get it for me…

Minor tangent… This sounds bizarre to everyone, I know, the whole “if you happen across one…”, but you wouldn’t believe the weird and random shit my parents have just “happened across”. Once, we were in some little antiques shop, and I’m like: “Oh, look at that super old camera! How neat!” Mom: “We have a couple of those… just like that!” Rinse and repeat for nearly everything in the place. Likewise, I was looking for a nice little plain cast iron cauldron. You know, for witchly things. And what do I find in my father’s garage? Not one, but /three/ miniature cast iron cauldrons hanging on the wall. I took them. off tangent!

So anyway, I’d mentioned that if they happened on a spinning wheel, I wanted one. Because those things are freaking expensive. I’ve got cheaper computers! And here, it turns out that this friend, RL, has not one, but two very antique spinning wheels just collecting dust. He doesn’t spin, some Hutterites in the area were selling him some things, and they tossed in a couple antique spinning wheels, also! One is from the 1800s, and one from like, 1903 or something. And he’s going to give me one! Just like that!!

No word yet on whether or not they’ve got everything they need to, you know, spin, but we shall see, we shall see. I’m thrilled to death! I can learn to *spin*!

I think I’m an addict. I’m knitting more socks! This will be my third pair this /year/. Yes. Pics soon. As soon as A. gets over to get pictures taken of the socks I knit her. Or maybe I should just take some pictures of them flat on a table. But it’s harder to see the pattern that way, being as it’s a lace pattern (Embossed Leaves) and multicolor yarn…

These new socks are also lace and multicolor yarn, and I’m not fond of the combination. But they’re pretty. I think. A. thinks the yarn is ugly. Whatever. ;-) It’s my first BMFA Rockin’ Sock Club package, yarn and pattern both. I’m highly impressed.

I had a really long rant posted yesterday, about a certain word a friend of mine has been using, but it just totally disappeared. WTF? Ah well. Nobody really needed to read it anyway, I guess.

So, what’s up with that New Moon Tarot reading, anyway? *shifty eyes* I did do a reading. I just never got around to posting it here. Like everything else. Next time, I swear!

So what’s up? Long time, no see. I haven’t been feeling well - sinus infection seriously doing me in - and a lack of sleep certainly hasn’t helped. I guess I just haven’t felt like popping on to say so… or much of anything.

It isn’t that I haven’t been busy - sinusitis and all. I’ve (finally!) finished up my peppermint socks. Check this out:

They were finished up on February Eve. Er. January 31st. At about 7 a.m. I had a deadline to finish those that day - and through a miracle bestowed upon me by the knit-like-fucking-hell gods, I managed. They fit great, despite my gut-wrenching fear vague worry that they would be too small on the size 0 needles I’d decided on, and I do not (thank heaven) have to rip them all out and start anew. The only thing I could’ve done differently in the end was make them a bit shorter in the foot. Due to the change in gauge due to the needle size change, I miscalculated the number of rows I’d need for the toe and knit the foot a bit long. But they still fit!

(Before you ask… yes, that is my yule tree still standing, a month and several odd days past yule… I sucked it up and tore it down about a half hour after taking this photo, and barely beat that “have it down before the 1st, or A. will mock you forever and ever” deadline.)

So now what am I doing? Knitting more socks, of course - this time for A., with the most gorgeous and softest and most luscious sock yarn ever - Blue Moon’s Socks That Rock, in the color Blarney Stone. (Pics when I get the first one done in a day or so, I swears!)

And… I’ve been amusing myself with a new game for my Nintendo DS - Harvest Moon DS. This is such a stupidly addicting game I’m almost embarrassed to admit it. The point is this - you’re a farm boy, and the Witch Priestess has accidentally cast a spell on her rival, the Harvest Goddess, making her disappear. Now you, the farm boy, must work real hard to get her back. No, you’re not doing any special “retrieve the goddess” work, you just have to be a farmer, and miraculously, if you do really well at it, all the harvest sprites will return, and then so will the goddess. Or, uh, something. Okay, the plot really really sucks. But the gameplay is damned cute. You grow things. You mine for ore and gems and minerals. You raise animals. And of course, you romance the cute town girls. It’s not, admittedly, really supposed to be a linear plot-driven game. It’s supposed to be a game about farming, and gosh darnit, it is.

The only thing that could make this better (besides, er, plot… was that really the best they could come up with?) is a little more choice in el farmboy. Can’t I be a farmgirl? Or better yet, can’t my farmboy romance the local dudes as well as (or instead of?!) the girls? C’mon, yaoi makes everything better…

But anyway. I’ve been playing for a few days now, and I’m… er… hooked. Like a crack addict. The worst part? It’s one of those games where you’re playing happily, and then you think: “Gosh, I should totally be doing this in real fucking life instead of pretending to do it on this little game…”

Tonight is the February new moon. (Also, for those who care, it’s Ash Wednesday today.) I realize that I didn’t put up January’s New Moon Tarot Card - why? I had it done… - so belatedly, I’ll just say that it was the reversed Five of Pentacles, and it was a very good reading.

Tonight, with luck, I’ll actually put up February’s reading. And tomorrow, ladies and gents, we officially enter the Year of the Rat. Four or five days ago, depending on which calendar you use, was Imbolc, a winterly pagan festival to call spring forth. Usually, it’s set on February 2nd - groundhog day - or February 1st. You may also know it as Candlemas; way back in time, the Irish people worshiped a goddess named Brigid, a goddess of healing, and hearth, and smithing - healing, home, and craftsmanship, she did it all. When the good Christians of the Europe came to show them the way, they convinced the Irish people well enough to convert to Catholicism, but convincing them to stop worshiping Brigid was such a lost attempt that they canonized her as a Saint, downsized the fire festival to candles, and called it Candlemas. Hey, if you can’t beat ‘em…

So anyway. The festival typically marks the very beginnings of spring - deep in the earth, under all that winter snow, things are stirring to life again. The days are gradually lengthening. In another six weeks (the spring equinox), signs of life should be everywhere. Many pagans pay homage to Brigid this day, and I did with a candle in her honor and a bit of a tarot reading (that, unsurprisingly, considering the origins of the festival, focused very much on craftsmanship.)

Merry Imbolc to all, belated as it may be.