Darkoshi

new laptop, switched over

2023-08-07T07:16:17Z

Finally, I have switched over to using the new laptop as my primary one. I am not finished setting up all my programs and settings, but the most important parts are done.

I figured out how to customize the menu colors in my Firefox and Waterfox browsers via my userChrome.css file. I hadn't planned to do that, but for some reason the browsers' menu spacing was less compact on the new laptop than the old one. While researching how to fix that, I also found out how to change the colors:

/* Make menus more compact, and change their color */
menupopup > menuitem, menupopup > menu {
	padding-top: 2px !important;
	padding-bottom: 2px !important;
	color: #00ffb2 !important;
	background: #4d056e !important;
}
menupopup > menuitem:hover, menupopup > menu:hover {
	background: #000000 !important;
}

I had a week of vacation to do it.
Besides the new laptop, I:
- baked brownies and chocolate chip cookie bars
- made cucumber salad
- cooked grits
- sewed a cloth cover on my headphone's headband after cutting off the original one which was sticky with age
- tried out the solid bike tires; returned them.
- watched some TV, including 3 more episodes of "I Don't Want to Be Friends With You".
- miscellaneous other minor things

I am not feeling rested at all. But at least I'm using the new laptop.

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expandable pants

2022-08-07T09:02:25Z

"My belly looks like a marshmallow," I thought, seeing it in the mirror.

A few dress pants of mine had gotten snug. Working from home, I haven't worn them in forever anyway, but that's besides the point.

It's too bad, I thought while looking at the pants, that they can't be made wider. There's no way to do it without cutting the waistband and inserting extra material which wouldn't match and would look bad.

I was debating whether to keep them or give them away.

Then I noticed something. Could it be? Yes, indeed. I was stunned that I'd never noticed it before. The pants were designed with extra fabric in the back. The waistband was sewn together in the center back, folded over on itself on each side. You only need to take out some stitches and sew it back together to widen the pants! Men's pants are so cool.

Two pairs of pants that I'd been debating about have that feature.

Another pair of my snug pants has a snazzy matching suit jacket, so I really didn't want to give them away. These pants don't have the extra fabric in back. However, the waistband folds over on itself on the front sides. And the pants have pleats in the front that could be taken out to provide more width. I doubt these were designed with that intention, but I might be able to widen them too.

Boy's shorts sometimes have elastic bands in the waistband that can be pulled to the desired tension and hooked onto a button on each side to allow for an adjustable fit.

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thanks be giving, pins be pricking

2021-11-25T09:22:09Z

Getting ready for bed, I feel a pinprick on my calf. Turns out that a sewing pin was stuck (sewn into) in the bottom seam of my pajama pants, from when I hemmed them shorter *last* November. I have multiple PJ pants and only wear these in the colder half of the year, but still. All the times I wore these and washed them since last year, and only discovered this now. ::amused::

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For tomorrow, I pre-ordered a cake and 3 dishes from a local vegan restaurant: mac'n'cheese, sesame ginger okra, and squash casserole.

I cooked a dish of my own, stir-frying together hominy, some nuts, lima beans, green soybeans, and spices.

I also baked cornbread muffins from a box mix. They taste quite good, the way I like cornbread to be. The main ingredient listed on the box is sugar. I guess that is why, when I make cornbread from scratch, with the main ingredient being cornmeal, it never tastes the same good.

My mom is making a sweet potato pie and marinated/spiced tofu.
It will be five of us getting together.

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I only found out last night that I can now get a COVID booster shot. When I checked the SC website a few days ago, after the federal announcement, it still indicated my age range was ineligible. I didn't want to get a shot today in case it made me feel ill for tomorrow. But I may go get it on Friday.

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people in vibrant patterns

2021-01-23T19:50:50Z

Video title: Quilting for the Culture, Bisa Butler
Posted by: Sok.Vision
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P3_61nh3xo
Date posted: Jun 6, 2020

Video title: Textile Artist Makes Beautiful Quilted Portraits | Localish
Posted by: Localish
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k15Npcc-b84
Date posted: Mar 17, 2020

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2am let's off to bed they said

2020-03-19T06:01:23Z

I haven't been singing songs while washing my hands, as that would make me hate the songs. But I watched a clock now while singing Happy Birthday in my head*, and have realized that they *DON'T* mean you can sing it as fast as possible, because that only takes about 10 seconds to sing it twice. You have to sing it at the *NORMAL* speed twice. Which is probably hard if you're in a hurry or bored and wanting it to get done faster, consciously or not.

*Wait. Those people who can't talk to themselves in their head must not be able to sing to themselves in their head either? Huh.

There seems to be a problem with today's Dreamwidth Password announcement email. I got it 4 times for this account, and now twice for my other account.

I also was of the impression that saying "Mississippi one" (etc.) as fast as possible took about a second. But even that takes less than a second. It has to be spoken fairly fast, but not that fast.

A zig-zag stitch allows for stretching:
https://mellysews.com/types-stretch-stitches-sewing-knits/

That's what I need to use on my worn sweatshirt cuffs. I will cut off a narrow section around the cuff where it has worn apart, fold the inner and outer pieces of cloth inward, and then use a zig-zag stitch to sew them back together. Hopefully it will look better than the frayed cuffs do.

Came across another one of Man Man's songs which I like, Engwish Bwudd. Good tribal belly-dancing too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-wKLHaFksM

I wonder if those songs are maybe familiar to me from over a decade ago, when they came out, and that is why I like them. I don't remember them but that doesn't mean I didn't hear them on the radio back then.

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sewing wire

2018-11-20T08:28:36Z

My little light-weight "sew mini" sewing machine can actually sew over folded seams on thick cotton pants, as long as I reduce the thread tension down to zero in those sections. Although jean seams might still be too thick for it. In the past it always got stuck on thick parts like that, so I thought it wasn't meant to handle such "heavyweight" items, and ended up manually sewing those parts.

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Wired magazine is currently having a sale, $5 for a year of ad-free digital access. (I'm not sure why $5, when their regular price is $19.99, and it says 50% off as a Black Friday deal). If any of you on my list would like me to buy you a digital pass gift subscription, PM me your email address and first&last name to enter on their site (it won't bother me if you want to give them a fake name).

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sewing/altering shirts to be less wide

2018-05-26T18:13:21Z

Because I like my clothing to be loose, I often end up with shirts that are very wide on the torso. Sometimes that bothers me when I look in the mirror, because the shirt, which may otherwise look awesome, sticks out in back or puffs up in the middle, making it look less good.

One quick fix is to use safety pins to pinch in the left and right sides a few inches up from the bottom of the shirt.

Another thing I've done is to sew a short inside seam on the left and right sides, angling inwards towards the bottom. That keeps it from billowing out on the bottom. But then the shirt may still be too wide and puffy on the top.

A better option may be to turn the shirt inside out and sew new seams for the entire left and right sides a few inches inward from the original seams. Extend the original sleeve-seam inwards a few inches, and then curve downwards for the new side seam. The problem I've had with this in the past, is that when the shirt is turned right-side out again, the fabric bunches up at the sleeve-to-side seam. That happened even if I cut off most of the excess fabric. The following page explains how to prevent the fabric from bunching up.

Sewing Tips – Clipping Corners and Curves.

The only difficulty then is how to sew the edges of the seam to prevent fraying, after having clipped the edges. I've been doing it by hand-sewing those parts, and sewing around the clipped edges, in and out, so that the new line of thread doesn't make it bunch up again.

So far, I've done that for 3 shirts.

I also hand-sewed belt-loops onto one pair of pants, and started sewing them onto another. Having a belt feels much more comfortable and convenient to me, than having only elastic or a drawstring at the waist. And I can clip things like my keys to the belt or to the loops.

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green black fuse sit-less

2015-06-10T04:41:12Z

I'd been wanting to make these green tea cupcakes ever since Qiao gave me the fabulous vegan cupcake cookbook. I finally bought the essential ingredient - matcha green tea powder - last year, but didn't get around to actually trying out the recipe until last week. The cupcakes turned out soft, fluffy, and super-duper yummy, even without any marzipan flowers on top.

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It is blackberry season. I've seen people gathering berries along the roads. On the way home from work today, I stopped by a patch and picked some myself. I'm glad I stopped at the place I did, as 2 other people were already stopped by the larger patches further down the road which I passed by later. As it was, after stopping my car where I did, it took me a while to gather my courage to get out of the car. I had a silly fear that someone would come out of the commercial building whose driveway I was parked in, and accuse me of stealing their berries. From the car, I couldn't even tell if there were any ripe berries in this patch. But I finally got out, and got me some lovely berries.

Thin dress pants aren't suitable attire for blackberry picking. A branch snagged my pants and tore out a few threads before I managed to get free. Denim would have been better.

After getting home, I checked the bushes across the street and picked some more berries there too. But those were tiny compared to the others.

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I remedied the pinholes in the curtain black-out liners by using fusible web to iron on extra strips of black-out fabric over the seam lines.

The black-out fabric and/or the fusible web gives off fumes while ironing it at the necessary heat level. But at least those fumes were temporary.

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Knoppix! I created a live disk and used it to boot my laptop to Linux. Neat! The last time I created a similar live disk and tried it on my old computer, I never got the internet working as that would have required finding and installing the necessary wireless drivers. But this Knoppix live CD had everything I needed - my wi-fi and internet worked, as did my external mouse and keyboard.

I was using Linux in order to reformat a 256 GB flash drive as FAT32. Windows didn't let me do it. Linux did.

The reason for reformatting the flash drive is a story for another time.

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Partially inspired by this post by gfish, as well as articles such as this one, I've been trying to do more work standing up.

When we moved buildings, I was given a 2nd monitor. Rather than position it side-by-side with my other monitor, I put it on my cubicle's shelf, after moving the shelf down a few notches. That puts the top monitor at a fairly good height for me to use while standing. So now I have one monitor on my desk to use while sitting, and another on the shelf to use while standing. I can position my mouse higher by using a small stack of books. But I can't really get the keyboard high enough to be very comfortable while standing.

I was thinking that rather than moving the monitor and accessories up and down, it would be simpler to have everything up high, and to have a high chair. Then everything would be at the right height whether I was sitting or standing. Maybe someday.

For now, I can only manage to stand for a few minutes at a time before I start feeling tired/uncomfortable, or before I feel the need to sit down to do something that takes my full attention. Working while standing is sort of like trying to write with my left hand - I can do it, but at a slower pace and with more frustration.

Sometimes I stand in a spread-leg or horse-riding position, which brings my torso low enough to comfortably use the lower monitor and keyboard. But I don't do that for long either, as it makes my feet tired, and I feel self-conscious about looking weird to anyone who walks by.

Then again, I do full-body stretches in my cubicle a few times a day, which surely is a strange sight to see, too.

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blackout curtains

2015-05-31T07:30:46Z

In place of the odoriferous curtains, I bought fabric in a pretty pattern and sewed curtains from it. I attached them to the old blackout liners with velcro strips. It turned out looking very good, such that every time I look at it, I'm pleased with my accomplishment.

Light still leaks in a bit on the bottom sides and through the pinholes in the blackout fabric where the seams are. So I'm also thinking about how to improve it yet more.

After unbending/bending the track, and cutting it. That was difficult.

Attaching board to ceiling. Blue tape marks location of ceiling joists.

Attached track to board. Velcro strip nailed along edge.

Attached board to ceiling again.

Hung liners and curtains.

With sheers and valance.

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colorfulness

2015-03-01T21:30:37Z

Wow. So much pretty. So much creative.

A video showing how the recycled sweater coats are made:

Video title: Making A Katwise Sweater Coat
Posted by: katwise osullivan
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wC8vu2BoBE
Description: How to make a recycled sweater coat.

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anime jackets

2015-03-01T08:28:28Z

I still get compliments on this jacket (photo from 10 years ago when it was new):

Today while out grocery shopping, a person in one store told me she liked the jacket, and later in another store, a guy asked where I bought it. My answer was likely a disappointment - while I bought it here in town, it was 10 years ago, and the store no longer exists. It was a generic store with household stuff, and I believe the owner was from Korea. The store had a small section of shirts and jackets, and that was where I made this awesome find. I bought a 2nd jacket too, for my brother:

The label in the jacket says "UF-10", and that it was made in Korea. I've never come across any others like it.

As the jacket only had a zipper, I sewed on a strip of snap-buttons, to let me button up rather than zipping up. I also sewed in some warm fleece side-pockets, as the existing pockets were thinly lined and weren't placed very well. Adding side pockets to a jacket is relatively simple - I've done that on 3 of my jackets now. You just need to sew some fleece (in a color matching the jacket) into a pocket shape, open up the side seam of the jacket, and sew the edges of the pocket to the seams.

It might be time to get myself an alternate less flashy winter jacket. While I enjoy the compliments, it also makes me realize how much I must stand out when wearing it. I do have another plain green winter jacket, but I usually only wear it on very cold days, as it is warmer and has a hood. Yet if I went shopping for a new jacket, I might end up finding another flashy one. After all, the above one is actually relatively subdued in color - just black/blue/white. Heaven forbid I find a sparkly rainbow-colored jacket; how could I resist?

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Fitted Sheets - How to Easily Replace Elastic

2014-08-03T07:09:11Z

Shows how to easily replace old worn-out elastic on a fitted sheet. Only applicable for sheets where the elastic is loose in a channel (casing), not where the elastic itself is sewn along the edge of the sheet.
Basically, cut free one end of the old elastic, sew that end to one end of the new elastic, then cut free the other end of the old elastic and pull it out. The new elastic gets pulled in at the same time. Then sew off both ends of the new elastic, and repeat on the other end of the sheet.

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must have belt loops

2014-02-05T13:55:25Z

Then I found another 3 pairs of nice pants (Lee "Riders") at K-Mart, in the women's section. Shades and patterns of gray. One of them, I may not even need to shorten. But I do need to sew extra belt loops on that one - for some odd reason it has belt loops in the front but not in the back. (Why is it so rare to find clothes for myself that don't need to be altered in one way or another?) One pair of the pants was labelled "trouser leg" while the other 2 pairs were labelled "straight leg", but I can't tell what the difference is supposed to be.

The navy blue colored pants that I got at the other store are so dark that they almost look black. So maybe I should still keep my old navy pants after all; maybe I can somehow alter them to be looser on the waist. Sigh.

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cube shade

2013-10-22T04:10:21Z

At my new cubicle, one of the overhead lights was glaring in my eyes. My former cubicles had the same problem, and in the past I had been able to block the light by putting up pieces of cardboard in strategic locations.

This time it was more difficult, as the offending light was higher overhead. But I devised a solution. It is a cloth shade, with a cord threaded through on one side, and a wire hanger on the other side, to support it. The side with the wire is only supported on one corner, so it needed something stiff to hold it up. Binder clips and paper clips hold the cord and wire in place. I used a relatively thin white cloth as I didn't want to make my work area darker; I simply wanted to reduce the glare a bit. There are also 2 sheets of dot-matrix printer paper on top of the cloth - that is the darker section.

It's not obvious from the photos, but my cube is still rather a mess. I haven't yet finished putting everything in its place. I plan to go through a bunch of papers and books to see what I no longer need.

These are some other ideas I considered, before deciding to make my own shade. I wanted it to be subtle, not something that could be seen from far away.

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darkoshi @ 2011-02-19T00:00:00

2011-02-19T05:15:56Z

darn it - so that's how one darns a sock.

A fortune cookie today informed me "You should enhance your feminine side at this time". Ahem. heheh.

We finally got Serena spayed this week. The prior appointment was cancelled due to snow. Before that it was delayed due to her being in heat. And then it seemed like she was in heat again. Now we have to keep her from running around for ten days while she heals. 3 days down, 7 to go.

Very tired.

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