Sanity can be such a distant thing...

RAWR! I'm back! It's rather sad, it seems like I'm the only one posting - or I'm the only one sad enough to keep posting =[

So... my day, I had a fairly relaxed day. I was revising this morning for the test in the afternoon, then ended up facebook. I had a good chat with some friends who I haven't spoken to for a  while so that was good ^^ Then I finally revised and I used revision as an excuse to procrastinate (the economics assignment is due tomorrow). Then I checked my email and my Chinese Economic Development lecture was cancelled because lots of us will be in the economics test, so my lecturer said it was better to cancel it (I thought the test was at 2pm, but it was actually at 3:30pm, so I wouldn't have been able to make it anyway). Then I read some articles, I read one about Venus' moon, and another one about Saturn's rings, apparently they're made of ice? Or something like that... It was rather interesting. Then I obviously did more revision and headed for the test. It went okay, besides question 4a, that one was mean. I had no clue how to do it. I knew what it was asking how, I just didn't know how. It's basically compound saving but compounded every month and it just didn't work. I tried a few formulas and none of them were right. Ah well, bye bye 8 marks (which I suspect is 8%). Then I came home and gave my economics assignment another attempt... it's actually almost finished, I just need another hour on it and I just need to finish all the graphs but concentration keeps running away from me. 

So, I knitted again. I thought I should get as much practice as I should. I keep procrastinating the start on the scarf because I'm really scared to ruin it. I might head down to the market tomorrow or some time this week and buy more wool. I also want to make arm warmers! Because these wooly 'sweatbands' are really warm ^^ They'd be awesome arm warmers if they were a little bigger. So I might go and choose some nice colours and make some arm warmers =] (omg, arm warmers have two arms!!! arm warmers.) 

I'm so smart that I managed to knit a hole in it o_O

This actually wasn't meant to be a 'sweatband', I had trouble ended it (again) so I decided to sew it together. I obviously still need work on actually making the width the same... I keep transitting from 15 stitches, to 14, then back to 15... so it's all a bit wavy at the side. 

 The 'yesterday' stretched ='[ I tried it on my legs to see whether it'd make a good leg warmer (the answer is no, it's way too short) and in the process I stretched it so now it keeps falling down my arm =[ 

Whilst I was taking photos, I got a little carried away. This is what happens when you give me a new toy (wool) and a camera. This is the point where my sanity also runs away... T_T 

My wooly sweatband!

Mwuahahahaha I said I wouldn't post any more but I couldn't resist picking up those knitting needles and finishing it off. As proud as I was of my first ever knitting thing, it was a really crap wooly bracelet =[ 

It's a tiny bit bigger than I wanted it to be... that's because I couldn't finish it off properly, I couldn't remember how to do it (I know it was only yesterday but my memory doesn't like to keep hold of things). So I had to keep knitting. Then I remembered something amazing called the internet which has everything you want to find. Then MWUAHAHAHA IT WAS FINISHED! Well almost, it looked like a scarf, a mini one (I couldn't take a photo of it because I was skyping with my mum and I didn't want her to know I was knitting). It's really difficult when I knit and skype with my mum at the same time... I have to position the camera higher and basically knit under the table =[ But all should be fun when she sees her (not yet existing) Christmas present ^^ 

It's actually the same width ^^ 

I tried to sew it together with wool... firstly, I couldn't thread it through the holes in the thing because I had knitted it a bit too tight... and a needle didn't help because the wool doesn't fit in the hole in the needle but I managed to piece it together some how =] 

(and no, that's not my arm...)

Back to revision... =[  perpetual bonds are giving me a hard time... they don't make sense~~

More Knitting

I am actually addicted to knitting. I just want to keep knitting and knitting. I just want it to be Tuesday so I have all the time I want to knit and bake ^^ Omg, I sound like such a housewife... knitting and baking T_T 

I'm rather proud in what I managed to knit in half an hour. 

I'm too lazy to crop it xD I'm planning to make this into a wristband or something... I'm deciding to practice on lots of small projects before I move onto the proper scarf. But yeah, I just don't want to stop. Knitting's like a new thing to me and I prefer it much more than coursework. 

Unfortunately knitting won't make me do well in life and my economics coursework (if completed at a good standard) will *sighs* I must do coursework now and revise for a test tomorrow. 

So no more knitting posts till Tuesday ^^  Hope you've enjoyed a lovely weekend =] 

Yay! I can officially knit!

*happy* I can KNIT! 

Yesterday, I had trouble knitting because (I discovered today) that I was doing it wrong! Well... during the main bit, I was hooking the wrong bit out, that's why when I try to move onto the next row it goes all weird. But the weirdest thing is, it sort of worked yesterday. That wrong method worked on my first ever scarf wooly bracelet. But today I decided to give it another go and it just wasn't working, so I tried it another and it worked!!! I shouldn't have said 'another way', it should be: I tried it the correct way and it worked! =D 

There was still another problem though... my scarf (or whatever I was knitting, it was just a practice) was getting wider and wider. As you can see in the photo below, the left bit just got wider and wider. But then I finally managed to KNIT IN A STRAIGHT LINE! Wooo! Each row is finally the same width... if I carried on, I think I would have went from 10 stitches to about 30 stitches in a row. 

To be honest, it sort of looks like a half done glove... I'm so talented, my second try and I made half a glove! Jokes. If I was truly talented, I wouldn't have done this, I would have knitted a normal straight line the first time xP 

But I discovered that I could knit so much quicker after I was doing it the proper way. This only took me a few hours xP I had some trouble ending it though... so I might practice ending it a bit more before I work on my mum's scarf. 

I think I know how to make hats... to make a round shape you probably just increase the stitches like what I've accidentally been doing? Who knows. I'll just stick with scarves for the time being =] 

Wooo I can knit ^^ 

Knit Knit Knit, Undo; Knit Knit Knit, undo again

Welcome to the world of failure - I mean knitting. I've decided that my mum's Christmas present this year would be a scarf knitted by the hands of her awesome daughter. [note: the chances are slim]

I've finally managed to find some knitting stuff after searching all over the internet and town. A friend and I searched half of Sheffield, then found a knitting shop (two, actually) in the market. So I bought some wool... two packs of grey wool for the scarf and a mini pack of blue wool for practice. After that we got some Millie's Cookies and headed back to my place. My friend kindly taught me how to knit. She helped me start off the first row and I was getting quite into it. Then the second row... I think going from row to row is the hardest thing! So we spent about over two hours knitting whilst watching Friends (despite all the channels, the TV doesn't actually give you many good options). The funny thing was... the width of my scarf would get longer and longer. It originally took up about just over half of the needle, then after a few more rows, it was as long as the needle... I had no idea how I did that but it was weird. Then before my friend left, she quickly showed me how to end it. That's not very fun either. Anyway... that's how my first ever knit-product was made. It looks incredibly shit as a scarf because it's not really a scarf. So I made it into a little bracelet sort of thing. 

My first time ever knitting ^^

My scarf-turned-wooly-bracelet 

Before my friend left, she started off the proper scarf for me, she did the first row and did a few more rows before it's easiest to go wrong there. Being the idiot I am, I completely ruined it. I couldn't make the thing go onto the next row, then it went funny and everything went downhill from there. I haven't taken a photo of that yet... but I will do soon. The piece of shame needs to hide. 

So I've been practising starting and moving on to the next line. Stupid knitting takes so much concentration that I can't even think about my economics assignment. And I'm sure no one can spend as long as I have (about 3 or 4 hours) and have made nothing at all. First, I forgot how to start it (though it was only a few hours ago)... I even went on YT and knitting websites to trigger my memory but my brain was refusing to co-operate. Then about 2 to 3 hours later, I finally figured out how the first row is made. Then here's the challenge... making the second row... only one word described this process: fail. 

I can't remember which way to take the first stitch over... it just wasn't working. And sometimes my hand would slip and the whole thing would slip off the needle and I'd have to start again. I keep having to restart because my transition from row to row just wouldn't work. Sometimes the second row would work then I'd have trouble getting onto the third row. I'd say I've started at least 6 times or so. Hence the result is nothing. I don't know anyone who can reuse that section on the wool over and over again so many times.

Anyway... back to my economics assignment - I've done no work today... and tomorrow doesn't look to promising either. 

Hopefully the next time I blog about knitting, I'll have knitted something decent =] 

I am a cookie cook ^^ ~~ lame, I know

Ladies and gentleman, it's that time of the day again! Procrastination time!!! =D After doing a facial, learning Chinese words, checking FaceBook and doing my nails - I'm actually running out of things to do. I have to resort to blogging to try and delay working on my coursework. It's not that I don't want to do my coursework, it's just that when I start thinking, my brain doesn't stop thinking about economics and it hurts...

Anyway, I made some cookies two days ago and I'll have you know, (some of them) were GOOD! They actually tasted like they were from Millie's cookies! I am on a mission to try and make the awesome-est cookies ever! Well... that may be a little too ambition, but you've got to aim high!

The double chocolate chip ones... well something happened to them. I didn't know how much cocoa powder to put in so I was just guessing... I did even bother using a scale, I was just tipping cocoa powder in and that didn't turn out too well. Plus they were slightly over baked ^^; there's always next time!

The normal chocolate chip ones were AWESOME! I feel a little bit big headed complimenting my own cookies but they were soft =)

The only major complaint is the chocolate chips. First, quality - I bought three packs of chocolate a while ago, it's the Silver Spoon ones (if I recall it correctly) and their chocolate sucks. It's not smooth, it's just not-nice chocolate. Just like the 20p supermarket brand stuff. So I think next time, I'll buy a few different types of chocolate and test which ones are good for cookies ^^ Another thing is, I keep having to chop my chocolate with a knife, and they're different sizes... so maybe I can buy chunky chocolate chips, or just work on my knife work =]

I feel like this blog is slowly moving towards a food journal or something =P

My aweosme and not-so-awesome cookies ^^

P.s. 'COOKIES' now has it's own tag! (I feel so proud and happy for the cookies to officially have a 'cookies' tag *tear in my eye*)

Fill my mind with knowledge - whether it stays in there is another story

You'd be pleased to know I'm being a very good girl. I've been doing my management essay (wooo!!) <-- I think I was being so sarcastic to the point that I can't actually tell whether that was a sarcastic comment anymore...

Nonetheless, in simply words: words are not my forte. I'm running out of words. I keep using the word 'consider'. Consider this, consider that. (Words like 'however' and 'therefore' are words you'd find at least once in every paragraph in my essays T_T)

So I decided to go on thesaurus.com (crap website really, but nevertheless, it was my source of words during GCSE and AS English). I thesaurused (yes, I'm aware that's not a word) the word 'consider'. Of course, nothing useful came up. If there was another good word out there that could replace the word 'consider' I would have used it already.

Then something caught my eye... on the right hand side, they had this little box which said: "Today's word picks on Dictionary.com". They had four words: qiviut, couture, truculent and selcouth. Mind, when I typed 'selcouth', a little red squiggly line appeared beneath it o_O

I clicked on each word, read the definition and chose my favourite. So today, I'm going to share the word: truculent.

truc·u·lent

   

[truhk-yuh-luhnt, troo-kyuh-] Show IPA

–adjective

1. fierce; cruel; savagely brutal.

2. brutally harsh; vitriolic; scathing: his truculent criticism of her work.

3. aggressively hostile, belligerent.

Origin:

1530–40; < L truculentus, equiv. to truc-, s. of trux savage,pitiless + -ulentus -ulent

—Related forms

truc·u·lence, truc·u·len·cy, noun

truc·u·lent·ly, adverb

—Synonyms

1. See fierce.

—Antonyms

1. amiable, gentle.

I'm not sure whether this word will come in handy... but it seems like an interesting word to know. E.g. why are you being so truculent to that piece of paper? o_o not sure whether it actually fits in a context like that...

Since blogger red squiggly lined selcouth, I'm deciding to share that word too ^^

sel·couth

   

[sel-kooth] Show IPA

–adjective Archaic .

strange; uncommon

Origin:

bef. 900; ME selcouth, OE seldcūth, equiv. to seld ( an ) seldom + cūth couth²

—Related forms

selcouthly, adverb

The life of coursework: procrastination

Quick note before I click post: this is going to be a complaining post. Well, (1) I need to get the stress of coursework out of me, (2) this is part of my procrastination plan (writing this post has managed take about 10 minutes).

The title says it all. Basically, distraction is the key to procrastination. The general story is: I have a management essay due this Thursday and an economics assignment due next Tuesday. The management essay is about half done... I just have to waffle another 400 words about managers lying for the organisation... I have a general thought on it, but I just can't seem to express in it words... well, let's wait for the inspiration to come~~ (hopefully soon).

In the mean time, I've decided that I can't write about my economics assignment without reading the textbook and making notes first, but that numbs my brain after two and a half pages or so... so now I'm finding 'interest/productive' things to do rather than making notes. Mind, I have been working diligently for the past few hours making these notes.

At this point, you'll be thinking I did great, making notes for a few hours. What you don't know about is the five or six hours before I started making notes: I was watching Korean variety shows (again) whilst attempting the management essay and the econs assignment in turn every hour or so. In two days, I actually finished U-Kiss's variety show: Vampire. I've tried to watch this a few months ago but it wasn't that interesting... but then I desperately needed some distraction (omg, for a moment there, I had this word block and couldn't spell distraction... I was like: #des'? no, 'dis'?) <-- Excuse that moment of retardedness. Now I'm watching Chef's Kiss, another U-Kiss variety show... I was enjoying it until about episode 7, this was the point where I started to make notes and could no longer concentrate on reading the subs and keeping up... (I still carried on watching it though... I'm on episode 9 now T_T)

The life of coursework. Sigh. What can I say. I hate it. And it'd be much better if I was actually writing it right now rather than complaining on this blog...

I feel like eating sushi...

I've concluded that when I'm doing coursework: I eat a lot T_T

I bought some fizzy cola laces from Tesco's yesterday... I ate two packs yesterday and ate the other one today... it was three for £1. They didn't last very long and I was rather disappointed; not because they didn't last very long, but because they didn't taste that good (certain bites tasted really bitter =S) and eating them didn't make me feel any happier. I feel this is where the economics of happiness should come in... or maybe talk about marginal utility theory (some new micro stuff I learnt a few weeks ago) but I think I'll give it a pass and I'm sure not many people are interested to know.

If only writing the management essay is like blogging. I'm sure this post exceeds the extra 400 words I need to finish it.

Back to making notes... Annyeong~

Snow, snow and snow

Hehe second post today! Well the title of this post says it all... snow is fallin'... lots of it is falling...

Views from my window

Views from the balcony