Mossy Cottage Knits

Señor Smackylips and My New Hobby

(Sometimes I worry about what’s happening to my mind. This morning I waved my keycard in front of the elevator button. The button you actually need to push to get the elevator to come down.)

No posting Friday, Dear Riders. I need to stay home to welcome the new washer and dryer into the family. (Should I be worried that they come with an instructional DVD? I mean, if don't understand the DVD player well enough to play the DVD, what does this mean about my ability to use the appliances?)

Some Guy at work—someone I don’t know—has recently and newly taken to eating in the lunchroom. Problem is, when he eats, dude smacks his lips loudly, juicily, rapidly, almost nervously and gerbil-like, so I’ve taken to scarfing down whatever frozen-and-nuked concoction passes for lunch that day and fleeing to my office to knit in smack-free, saliva-free, gerbil-free silence. Which, granted, is a little dull and lonely for a social addict like me. But I’m actually indebted to Señor Smackylips since huddling in my office has led me to discover Librivox, a free, online audio-book site.

For years, I’ve read in knitting forums and on blogs how some knitters entertain themselves by listening to audio books while knitting. The idea intrigued me, yet I could never be bothered to do what it took to acquire the books: order them online, buy them at a bookstore, take them out at the library, borrow them from a friend—because then there’s all that crap about having to return the darn thing if you want to continue to be considered a responsible adult. Besides which, at home, my BFF is the boob tube. Words for when you don't understand the pictures, pictures for when you don't understand the words, and when you understand both—bliss! But what to do in the office, where having a TV in your office is verboten? Thanks to Librivox, I’ve spent the last few days in my office, door closed, feet up, burning up miles of medium-green Wool Pak, listening to childhood favorite Dr. Dolittle. For free. And didn’t have to return a blessed thing. (Although I'm starting realize now, reading the book as an adult for the first time, how racist it can be. Perhaps I hear another book calling my name.)

The curious thing about LibriVox is that it’s an online community effort. I don’t get how’all it works, but apparently you can go to their forum, see what (public domain) books are next in queue to be read, and sign up to read a chapter, or two, or three, or all of whatever it is, in the case of something short. This means that each of the five chapters I’ve listened to so far have been read by a different person, and it’s been an interesting journey. Some voices you like, some you don’t, some add a whole new dimension to the book. For example, the woman who warbled and twittered as she read, not my fave; she needs to go sit with Señor Smackylips. The man with a nice timbre to his voice who sounded as if he was just getting over a cold—but in a rich, plummy way—quite nice. And the woman with the Indian accent added a whole new layer of international flavor to what is, at its core, a very white-bread book.

So, what has all of this gotten me? The front, the back and the beginning of the top-back of the Four-Acre Sweater:

Some clarifications about the Dulaan-a-Thaan (alternatively written “Dulaan-aa-Thaan,” if you want to go crazy with those Mongolian "aa's"):

• No need to stay the whole 12 hours! If you can join us for one hour, or two, please do.
• Although I haven’t exactly clarified this with Dulaan-a-Thaan Boss-Lady Kim, I’m going to go out on a limb and say you probably don’t need to wear pajamas, per se, but we’d encourage you to wear comfortable, lounging-around clothes because this is all about the being comfortable and all about the lounging around. And all about the Dulaan, but you knew that.
• Thanks to The Mysterious K, whose idea this next was entirely, we’re going to try to run a blog-a-thaan at the same time (blaag-aa-thaan?). Should add an extra high-tech dimension to the pajama party. There may also be podcasting going on but that’s owner Victoria’s bailiwick, and I plead complete ignorance.
• There will be showing of movies, the F.I.R.E. video for sure, and perhaps something else, such as "The Weeping Camel."

Note to Norma, who is waiting for her version of this to bloom:

Neener, neener. (Note the dime. That’s how big this flower is.)

Posted by Ryan at May 2, 2007 10:50 AM