Well, let’s see:
- I am now on page 107 (of 946) of the book on PHP and MySQL, which is not quite as bad as it sounds since the last hundred or so pages are appendix and quite a few of the later chapters I can get away with skimming. Nonetheless it is slow going. I’m averaging about 20-30 pages a day and have another 100 pages before I even get to MySQL. But on the grand scale of things, that will get me the basics of PHP in about a week and a half, which I suppose is pretty fast. I’m just not very good at waiting. In another week or two I should be ready to begin the projects database work. Can’t wait!
- Wove another two or three feet on the network drafted jacket, and will probably weave more today. I hope to finish weaving this particular piece later this week, whereupon I will (hopefully) get the motivation to finish the muslin for it, sew the jacket, and weave a shawl with the remaining warp. After that I think I will spend some time fiddling with the loom. For some reason I am unable to weave plainweave without a lot of skips, and I want to adjust the loom to see if that will help. I may have to ask the weaving lists for help.
- I found another mathematician/Caltech alum who weaves! She and I are talking about working through Bonnie Inouye’s Exploring Multishaft Design together (I only got through chapter 6 on my own). It will be really exciting to work through it with someone who likes to think deeply about what she’s doing, and see if she can extend/generalize the theory. I really hope this works out. It’ll be at least a month before we can get started (she’s busy, I’m busy) but I’m looking forward to it already.
- We are thinking of making this an online study group of sorts, so if you know other intellectual/theoretical type weavers, let me know and maybe we can make it a group instead of just the two of us.
Apropos of nothing in particular, I’m making beef stock today. (Or rather, buffalo stock, as the only bones my butcher had left were buffalo bones.) I’m always amazed by the magic of stock – a few caramelized bones, some vegetables, a sprig or two of thyme, and presto! an elixir that gives life and body to whatever you put it in. I simmered it for sixteen hours last night and this morning, and am boiling it down now to make a concentrated stock (almost demiglace) for freezing. Great stuff!
Not much else to report – I’m still on the tail end of this stupid bronchitis, but I’ve at least reached the point where I’m not coughing all day. Just when I have to get up and move around. I’m really hoping this goes away by end of next week – I REALLY have to get out and start training for the AIDS Ride. It frustrates me to be stuck indoors on my butt and be unable to do any training whatsoever.
