Category: To Occupy my Time

How to View and Appreciate Great Movies—Completed

Kanopy, the library’s free streaming service, gives me access to the Great Courses. I’m planning a Hollywood Movie Musicals project, so I thought I would start with a film appreciation course. Today, I completed it.

Eric R. Williams was my teacher, and he taught the 24 lectures with the glee of a learned film fan and the enthusiasm of an overexcited dad. There were times that his antics were cringeworthy, but his full-hearted love of film overcome those moments.

Not overcomable was the use of really bad computer generated versions of movie scenes. I’m sure they had to use them for copyright reasons, but I had to look away while they were playing, rendering their use moot.

Another fun thing was that his set was full of fun Easter eggs, like the license plates above the window. I got THX 138 first (George Lucas’s first movie), and eventually the 007 clued me into James Bond’s license plate.

I had to look up the other two. CNH 320 is the Dukes of Hazzard license plate. I can’t find the specific meaning of the 125 PCE plate, but I have learned that 0-499 PCE is reserved for California license plates that are used in film and movies.

This course gave me a solid start to my movie project, and I’m hoping to refer to my notes often. Thanks to Mr. Williams, the Multnomah County Library, and Kanopy for this free resource.

Camino de Santiago “Walk” Completed

I started “walking” the Camino on December 23, 2024, and here I am having finished my walk in May.

That’s significantly longer than most people take to actually walk the Camino, but since my walk was based on steps, there you have it.

I now start the longest expedition: the Appalachian Trail. As the number of kilometers is longer than 2,000, I don’t expect to finish this walk for a very long time.

Dropcloth Sampler The Original Sequel

It’s the time of finishing many things, including this sampler. This is the third of three Dropcloth Samplers I bought in October 2020 with an Etsy gift card from Linda Johnston. Here is the first one, and here is the second one.

I think this is the sampler that has a tutorial on Creativebug. I couldn’t find information about a few of the stitches, so I did all of the sampler but those stitches, then signed up for the free trial and learned those stitches, then watched the tutorial for the schoolhouse sampler.

This sampler came with printed color, which was a fun addition. I’m pleased with how it came together.

Some favorite things: the shag carpet look of the turkey work, how great the brown and red look against the yellow background, and that I was patient enough to even stitch over the printing with the name on it. You can see that I wasn’t really into the close herringbone.

Also fun? I ordered the wrong color of DMC floss, and so I had this hot pink salmon kicking around. It made a great frame using split stitch. I also enjoyed the Cretan stitch. I was not a fan of the Japanese darning stitch. I had to draw guiding lines on the sampler.

Here’s a shot of the back.

Dropcloth Sampler Schoolhouse Sampler

Finished! This one took a while. It had a lot going on.

Here’s the overview, and then a bunch of pictures of things that went well.

I think I did a great job with the color choices for this alphabet, and I was pleased with how the variegated cursive alphabet turned out, because I don’t love backstitch and also often variegated doesn’t look so good. But this did.

The different kind of arches around the edge were where I used up bits of thread.

You might not have guessed, but the name and date thing really held me up. I spent a lot of time sketching out what I wanted it to look like and that sketching involved rulers and a lot of math. Given all the prep, it looks a little wobbly. I do like my whipped backstitch frame, plus the chain stitch and green alphabet below it. The color contrast with the numbers turned out great. I don’t love that the number six was so small on the sampler. That makes me look like I couldn’t handle the six.

On the left side, are some fun variations. Given a chance to do this again, I would do all the right-side stuff before the left-side stuff. The left side involved a lot of thick thread and it made it hard to keep tension in the hoop once I got to the right side.

Good old French knots. Yet another way to use up bits of thread. I had to stop making them because the back was a tangled thicket I couldn’t get my needle through.

Having some fun with variegated perle cotton and that backstitch. Also the thick yarn and couching! Love it!

These wagon wheels were fun. Whipped backstitch. Those colors became the alphabet colors on the right-hand side.

The squares showed off different things to do with basic stitches. I liked how this zig zag ended up reminding me of a 70s sweater.

Variegated thread also worked out well here in this basket weave. And I thought I did a good job choosing the gray color to set off the colors. I also tried to do a different style border around all of the squares. This was an alternating running stitch.

Stripes! Another good use for bits and bobs.

Clouds was my favorite square and also rather thick when I finished it.

I like what I did with polka dots. French knots surrounded by different variegated thread in chain stitch. What I don’t like is that this square is not square. It’s not me! It’s designed that way.

Who doesn’t love a good chain stitch rainbow?

My pink/purple color palette came in handy for this one

I also thought I did a nice job choosing colors for the plaid box. Very 90s.

And here’s the back, for those who are interested.

My New Computer Setup

Now that my job has ended, and I’ve given back the monitors and laptop, I’ve reverted to my previous setup.

I gave this monitor to Matt when I got the KVM switch so that I could use the work monitors with my desktop. He used the monitor for a time, and then it sat on his desk, just waiting for me to be laid off. So I happily took it back. You will note that some canning jars are raising the monitor to the correct height.

You will also notice the 2-Hour Job Search book on the corner of my desk. It is helping me network.

22nd Anniversary at República

We’ve eaten at República before. It used to be in a smaller space in the Ecotrust Building. It’s moved into a space near Powell’s that once housed that mediocre pasta chain restaurant. This is a huge upgrade. As we like to do, we had the tasting menu.

I can no longer recall what this course was, but it was delicious, as were all our courses.

The bill was delivered in a book along with a card, and we got to take home a little treat for the next morning with our coffee (amended to tea when we told him we didn’t drink coffee).

It was a delicious sweet that melted well with the tea.

República is a splurge that is well worth it.

My Computer Setup c. April 2024

Memorializing my three-screen setup for my work computer. It allowed me to keep track of all the things.

The horizontal monitor was where I did my editing work. I could fit a document at 120% and also be able to pop the style guide up when I needed it.

The laptop screen was where I kept track of the requests coming in (or not coming in, as it came to be). I also did my internet searching on additional tabs.

The horizontal screen allowed me to monitor both Teams comments and messages as well as email. It was also where I kept my To-Do lists and opened relevant files.

You can barely see my keyboard, but it’s below the my desk’s top, arranged at just the right height.