Unutterably Silly So what are you doing RIGHT NOW?

[Rumpelteazer]

Ripping a couple of cds I got recently and one I found out the physical cd got two more songs than the digital download version.

Today I found out I'm now considered somewhat the weirdo in the neighbourhood. And it isn't because I mostly wear black and dark coloured clothing. It isn't because I love a band shirt (especially of a certain satanic band). And it isn't because when I'm out and about I wear headphones most of the time. It's because I cross stitch. A couple of weeks ago a package for a neighbour who wasn't at home was left at our place. I had the window blinds open because I was expecting my own package, one that wouldn't fit in our package box and delivered by DHL. When a package delivered by DHL doesn't fit in the box they just leave it in the front garden. I was on the couch cross stitching and when the neighbour picked up her package she saw me cross stitching. She asked if I was embroidering and I told her it was cross stitching.

Since then I've had several neighbours ask me about it. One asking my in a whisper about it. As if it's some kind of forbidden witchcraft.

One of my planned projects is to stitch a couple of smaller Halloween themed project to put in our front window. Halloween is celebrated in our neighbourhood; some neighbours decorate their house around that time and there's a Halloween treasure hunt for kids where they can go by houses to collect some candy. We wanted to at least participate in decorating our house/front yard for both Halloween and New Year.

[DNSB]

Writing a Libra 2 disk image sent to me by another MR member to a SD card. After writing will sanitize the FAT32 partition, recreate the image and zip it for distribution. Ranks right up there with watching paint dry and your toenails grow for sheer thrills.

[poohbear_nc]

Insanely pleased with myself - got out of the hospital and took time off to recover - now have all my energy back - and cleaned out all the kitchen cabinets and cleared off the counters - I can see counter tops again! Not sure why this is so satisfying but I'll take it. Filled 5 bin bags with stuff I don't need/use any more.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Insanely pleased with myself - got out of the hospital and took time off to recover - now have all my energy back - and cleaned out all the kitchen cabinets and cleared off the counters - I can see counter tops again! Not sure why this is so satisfying but I'll take it. Filled 5 bin bags with stuff I don't need/use any more.

You were in the hospital?!

I'm sitting by the outdoor pool at the local university. A quiet afternoon here, which makes it even more pleasant. I swam for an hour; now I'm reading on my Kobo Mini. I may go for another dip in a bit.

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by issybird

You were in the hospital?!

Went into hospital July 4th - had an abscess on my sigmoid colon - incredible pain - luckily responded to IV antibiotics - didn't need surgery - home on Sunday - slept for a week and now feel great. Docs have no idea what caused it.

Now back at my closet/cabinet cleaning out project to do indoors during this insanely hot weather.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Went into hospital July 4th - had an abscess on my sigmoid colon - incredible pain - luckily responded to IV antibiotics - didn't need surgery - home on Sunday - slept for a week and now feel great. Docs have no idea what caused it.

Now back at my closet/cabinet cleaning out project to do indoors during this insanely hot weather.

Yowch! Glad you’re better.

If you run out of cabinets, I can fill the lack. I did do a section of the kitchen cabinets yesterday, but I’ve rested on my laurels since.

[poohbear_nc]

Kitchen & back hallway (aka mudroom) clean-out/declutter is finished! Pile of bin bags await collection.

If the urge remains - it's on to the living room, with maybe a quick stop at the pantry.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

She asked if I was embroidering and I told her it was cross stitching.

Since then I've had several neighbours ask me about it. One asking my in a whisper about it. As if it's some kind of forbidden witchcraft.

Tell her lots of us enjoy cross stitching! If we didn't, nobody would sell the kits any more. I have a whole wall of them, plus several in other rooms!

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Tell her lots of us enjoy cross stitching! If we didn't, nobody would sell the kits any more. I have a whole wall of them, plus several in other rooms!

Nice!

According to the neighbour we're friendly with other neighbours are confused how a metal head/goth(?) can be into something such as cross stitching.

It's just that to my autistic mind cross stitching is such a nice and orderly hobby. Just following a nice and neat pattern and stitching Xs. The thought of doing regular embroidery and having to decide yourself what type of stitch you need in what situation is just pure chaos in my mind.

I really need to look into framing in another way than in the hoop. I've got a couple finished projects that are either too big for a hoop or would just look better in a square frame. But I don't want to spend a lot of money having them framed professionally.

[badgoodDeb]

Well, in my photo it should be obvious that I eschew frames and hoops. I just use "map pins" (teeny things with a round head) and put the fabric up on the wall. Because I like it that way. But you can, of course, decide how you like them displayed.

[Rumpelteazer]

I think my sister would kill me if I put up my cross stitch projects in what she would consider an unfinished state, LOL. Also, we have stone walls, so the pins wouldn't work. I've also seen them "framed" with just the top and the bottom attached to something (wooden magnetic frame, rod, metal thingy).

I'll have to do a bit more research into the various methods of framing and decide what I like. To be honest I stitch mostly for the activity and not that I feel like I want it on my wall. That isn't to say I will stitch anything, I prefer stitching things I like how it looks. Currently I'm powering through Mucha 2. I will like the end result, but it's just so many muted colours.

[tempest@de]

In the past I’ve framed mine using picture frames and cardboard, I put the project in the center of the picture and covered it with a piece of cardboard that I previously cut a hole in the middle.

I found two pictures, two different styles of picture frames, see if this is something that could work for yours.

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

Nice!
I really need to look into framing in another way than in the hoop. I've got a couple finished projects that are either too big for a hoop or would just look better in a square frame. But I don't want to spend a lot of money having them framed professionally.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by tempest@de

In the past I’ve framed mine using picture frames and cardboard, I put the project in the center of the picture and covered it with a piece of cardboard that I previously cut a hole in the middle.

I found two pictures, two different styles of picture frames, see if this is something that could work for yours.

That looks good.
I know from little bits and pieces I've seen that you can pin or lace your project on a foam board, I'll probably go for lacing (no metal that can potentially rust). I can then DIY a mat (if needed) or order one custom made, which isn't too expensive.

[DNSB]

Rebuilding a friend's computer after the spinning rust hard drive failed. Knocking a desktop tower onto it's side while the hard drive is running is not a good idea. Thankfully, their latest backup is only a week old so not all that much data lost and the replacement drive is an SSD.

[nana77]

When saw that that Wacom Tablet Mobilestudio 13" was highly lowered in price, I'd didn't holded the temptation, and bought it; thought there are others too on a way cheap sale than usual, in my humble opinion because Windows 10's starting to drop support, and on that device upgrading seems to work not that well (the device has a processor from 2016).
I was waiting to have the inspiration, because the intention was to use a different OS on it, and not sure how much work was needed to do it.
The idea was to put in a minimalistic operating system, and use it with Krita; instead while trying Pop_OS!, looking anything worked fine from the first try, I guess I will keep it as so (wifi working without issues, suspend too; I was wondering too how would it be to use gestures on a portable pc, and those are configured by default, fine working too - swiping four finger to the right to open applications' menu, to the left to open the sidebar desktop's switcher, three fingers to switch throught the opened windows..); it has a 2k screen, so for those monies (was at around 350 euros in total, shipping and VAT included, including having to add a Lenovo 100W usb-c power supply - the one made for the Yoga; and the Pro Pen 2 that I'd found on Amazon.com at 30$ less than Amazon.it; the device itself was at 260 euros), imho it worths (saw others from Japan at the same price, considering the total adds and the less expensive shipping from there).
So just trying it out, it's a very nice device, thinking that having 8 or 16GB of RAM in 2016 wasn't the default set on laptops (thought it's upgradable only on later 2019 devices); it can be used to watch movies, comics - colors are fantastic, those devices were sold to professionals for likely 1200/1600$, depending on configurations - or adding stuff throught the central Thunderbolt port (like also using it as a secondary monitor; not my means, I'd just like to use it with Krita, learn stuff, and grow this as an hobby).
Quite happy how GNU/Linux works fantastically: at the very first start it even asked for a firmware update, that's not that common if the pc is too custom (if I recall it correctly: it was a long time I didn't mess around within an installation).
I'm not the kind that buys everything every once and then, time ago I did tried an aged Wacom 21UX, 'couse in reviews it seemed that having a low resolution on LCD, and just 1024 points of pressure for the pen's tip wouldn't change much unless doing very professional stuff.
I'm not also the kind one that sketches anywere (as real ones), and having a device that doesn't requires a pletora of cables to connect it, it was what I'd like.
Sorry for the long reading, I hope not to have wrote too badly.
Just a quick tryed out:
https://imgur.com/a/9mksTDL

Edit, typos.
Edit 2: within defaults', on settings there is yet a Wacom's tab; also nice that while not using a keyboard it pops out a nice one (which I didn't saw any, in past times, on those desktops).