Tuesday, March 18, 2008

I think I'm old.

Pretty sure I'm old. Because the husbeast bought me an iPod Shuffle (a 'just because' present, he says) (no, he is MINE you cannot have him) and it got here last night. I synched it with the computer, loaded on THIRTEEN HOURS' worth of music, and turned it on. It sounds great, wonderful digital sound. A battery charge lasts around twelve hours. What makes me old about all this? (Other than the fact it took me this long to get an iPod.)

LOOK AT HOW FUCKING SMALL IT IS!!! That's IT. Battery, music, volume control, EVERYTHING. It's a freaking postage stamp!!! I had a first generation Walkman, for crying out loud... this solid state digital age stuff is making my head swim.

But it is cool.

So last night I put on my ol' head phones and dug in to do some spinning.

At one point I noticed the Husbeast was standing in the door laughing at me. I turned down the music and said, "What?" he kept laughing and said "It's the contradition that is you." I said "Huh?" again. This went back and forth for a while. I really wasn't getting the clash of high-tech iPod and medieval tech spinning wheel all in the same place. But the Husbeast was mighty amused.



Sekhmet has proven, yet again, the extreme lengths she will go to, to find a sunbeam:

Fucker.



I've hit kind of a dry spell on books; I've read everything new, and my next order of books won't get here until this weekend (a book to teach myself chemistry, and another book on the history of textiles). So I pulled out this art history book I've got, that's, um, like 900 pages long (I've been meaning to read it for years, instead of just looking at the pretty pictures). Then I started at the beginning and started to read. I'm up to classical Greece now, and have reinforced all my previous thoughts on art and history: the stone age and neolithic are fascinating; textiles and clothing are fascinating; jewelry and other gemstones are fascinating; and I don't give a rat's furry ass about statuary or Great Paintings. I'm seriously thinking about skipping ahead to India or China; Greece is for the birds.

Anyone know how to knit a toga?

12 comments:

Lynne said...

I'm older than that - my first portable music was a transistor radio, a bit too large to fit into any pocket I owned. But it was state of the art then...

To knit a toga: Pick a large number. Cast on twice that many stitches. Knit, and knit, and knit, for 3.5 times the original number of rows. BO. Wrap around the bod. Be a lot simpler to weave it, though...

Lynne said...

Whups - sorry, make that seven times the original number of rows. I was knitting something else.

NeedleTart said...

Just knit a kimono with no sleeves. Don't forget the brooches. And my fist sound system was a transistor, too. I was so cool.

Bells said...

that contradiction really is superb, isn't it?

Welcome to the world of ipods. You won't look back!

Liz said...

I've got one of those and no, it's impossible it carries that much stuff; because for that much stuff cassettes, and batteries, and all that sort of crap, need to be lugged around. And it clips to your shirt. Just... gah... And I was given mine, by a knitter. Perfection.

Cam-ee said...

I started out at 13 with a transistor radio. Then moved onto a cassette walkman when I was 16, a minidisc player at 17.

Now I have an ipod nano with video, a video nano that I figure out this week I can rest on my knee while spinning on the wheel, just under my drafting so I can spin and watch the video at the same time....

After which I update my lime and violet knitwars account using my mobile phone from where I'm sitting near the lake at uni.

I swear, I'm not a geek!

Alwen said...

The Japanese stole the idea for the Walkman out of my teenage brain. Or maybe it was in the teenage brain collective of the time.

Once you get the loom set up, weaving is much faster. It's the winding the warp, dressing the loom, threading it, sleying the reed, and evening up the tension on the tie up that takes a lot of time. Even 24 epi yardage is relatively fast.

But hey. Thanks. I think my weaving mojo is getting lured out of hiding by your enthusiasm, kind of like Sekhmet in her sunbeam.

Louiz said...

My dad visisted America when I was 10 or so and brought me and my sister back walkmans. This would have been in 1982 or thereabouts.

Don't make a toga, make a chiton!

http://www.dl.ket.org/latin1/things/romanlife/greekdress.htm

or

http://www.dkimages.com/discover/Home/History/Europe/Early-Civilisations/Ancient-Greece/Clothing/index.html

But the greeks weren't all white statues and noble poses - analysis of the statues shows that they were painted really really bright colours originally and that they've faded since...

(don't get me started on the greeks... but read the illiad... with a good "notes" type book... or the theban tragidies again with a good notes type book... )

Donna Lee said...

I,too had a transistor radio. Sigh, it was a wonderful thing at the time. I got a sports walkman (I am hard on electronics) to listen to books while I ride the train to work (I can't read on a moving vechicle but I can knit). Now I have a creative zen photo and I love it because I can download library books and listen on the train. There are no batteries and no cassettes to carry. I started with a nano but it doesn't work with the software at Netlibrary so I traded for the creative and have never looked back. 8G means hours of music and books and I can knit and listen for hours.

Amy Lane said...

Definitely skip ahead to China...'Classical Greek' stuff was a bunch of stuffy misogynists, standing around an congratulating each other for walking upright.

I LOVE the iPod spinning wheel contrast--it just doesn't get better than that... (and iPods ARE the best thing since sliced bread they are they are they are!!!)

roxie said...

I remember radios with tubes. I remember whencomputers took up entire buildings, and had large numbers of people running around to change burned out tubes, and were about half as powerful as your average hand-held calculator. Did you know the first space flights were all figured on slide-rules? Your tiny ipod is magic. It's just pure magic!! And Sekhmet is astoundingly tolerant of baby clutter in her sunbeams.

Gryphongal said...

Sorry to be off topic... sent an email last week requesting permission to use one of your articles but have not heard from you yet... thought perhaps I ended up in your spam folder since my email is wish4dreamhome@aol.com ... Also read your copywrite blog today (after the fact of course). Please email me to discuss... Thanks... happy knitting...