June 25, 2007
BSJ: Things are Looking Up
A follow-up to TMK’s “seven:”
(As an aside, Mel, we adored your fantasy travel itinerary. Much discussion ensued. Destinations were added, destinations were discarded, different modes of transportation were considered: car, train, bus, camel, Segway... But don’t hold your breath. I don’t think even your close-up picture of fox poop is enticement enough for homebody TMK.)
I used to travel from Washington to the East Coast to spend Christmas with fambly. Upon my return to the Great Northwest, I was often jet-laggy and not pleasant to be around for a couple of days. Never having been out of the Pacific Coast time zone, TMK did not “get,” did not, as it were, “believe in” jet lag so she accused me of using this questionable and mysterious “jet lag” condition as an excuse to get away with general bitchiness. Until she took a trip which crossed one (one! one!) time zone and came back feeling ever-so-slightly edgy, draggy, crappy and, why, yes, bitchy. To her credit, she apologized profusely.
Wait until I get her to the East Coast. TMK with jet lag, let loose on the mean streets of New York. Fun times.
Just when you thought I was done with ordinal linguistic personification, anyone ready for my take on the number Zero? It’s a doozy.
First, Zero is a ghost. I mean, look at it: A thin outline around the outside and transparent in the middle. What does that say to you?
Secondly, if he were alive, Zero would be a god, not a demigod like One. Which explains why One doesn’t like being a demigod—because he knows he’s any kind of a god simply due to happenstance, that he’s merely a substitute for Zero, and he’ll never be good enough to be promoted to a true god.
One definitely has issues.
Told you it was a doozy.
Hallelujah! I can’t begin to tell you how vindicated I feel after watching the Baby Surprise Jacket DVD (thank you again, Janine)! I’ve now seen the pattern interpreted five ways: my way, two ways posted on the internet, Jessica’s way, and Meg Swansen’s way. And they are all different. And they are all correct. And, who knows—they may all be wrong.
But I must be doing something right because my BSJ is currently so amorphous and so twisted and tangled on the needles that I can’t take a photo of it that would begin to make sense. Er, that’s good, right?
And, so help me God, I’ve started looking at color possibilities for my second one. (Hah. Funny typo: I first typed “pissibilities.” How apropos.)
The Dulaan number is going through the roof, Brigadiers! The last time I reported, it was 9,101. A mere two days after, I received another update. Grab ahold of your britches, folks:
11,519!!!!!
That means that, as of that count, we had only 597 items to go. Piece a’ cake.
This week, I’ll be working on putting together the prize or prizes for “Dulaan 10,000 or Bust.” Some unexpected but wonderful items were given as prize donations so—this could be fun!
Posted by Ryan at June 25, 2007 10:31 AMYou are coming to NY? Must do a knitters' meet up.
Posted by: Judith in NYC on June 25, 2007 12:07 PMSorry, Judith, no real plans to come to New York in the works. But I'm determined, at some point, to get TMK farther than one time zone!
Posted by: Ryan on June 25, 2007 12:09 PMRyan,
If you want to expose TMK to some serious jet lag (as in, she'll drop to her knees and wail, "I believe!"... then promptly crumple and fall asleep) take her to Japan. Her first three days will be a surreal blur, but she'll never snark about it again.
Posted by: jeanne on June 25, 2007 12:15 PMOne can avoid jetlag almost entirely by driving cross-country. (I've done it twice! Ugh.) That way you only lose one hour a day, so it's more like a rolling daylight-savings-change experience, where you feel kind of groggy and confused, but not nearly to the extent provided by airline travel.
Of course, one does have to factor in the bitchiness that results from spending three to four days in the car. The train would provide more room to move around, but if you took the car, Frankie could come!
Posted by: Erika on June 25, 2007 12:48 PMI'm sending off my promised 5 items tomorrow!!
Posted by: Cece on June 25, 2007 01:16 PMI was going to suggest going from Seattle to New York/La Guardia to London, England to Frankfurt, Germany--but Japan would work too. And if you are going to Japan, I would love to come too.
Way to go Dulaaniacs! 11,500+ items!!! woohoo! You ladies ROCK!!! Faboo!
Posted by: Nancy O. on June 25, 2007 01:55 PMI've always thought of 0 (zero, zed, null, nada) as female. You see, she's so CURVY!
Posted by: Leslie on June 25, 2007 01:55 PMHey Ryan!
I sent the BSJ spreadsheet, but didn't get any indication that you received it. Drop me a note - if you didn't get it, I'll send it again. I had to convert the Excel file to a .pdf because it was too big to email otherwise!
Oh, and I sent my 36 items to Dulaan last week - now to get started on next year's knitting.
Hi Ryan, I've emailed you as well but wanted to let you know that I've finished my 5 (actually 6) and will be mailing them this week. Thanks!
Posted by: Suzanne on June 25, 2007 02:30 PMThis is for TMK: of course the East Coast doesn't exist -- how absolutely astute of you to know this intuitively (not having seen it for yourself). For those of us who have tried, it has been a nightmare of wasted time in airlines, never landing, just flying in circles. Of course, having had such an embarassing experience, we have made up all sorts of stories to cover the time we spent traveling -- that's how the Empire State Building, Yankee Stadium (they are even building a new "imaginary" one!), Sears Tower and the White House were invented. There are no Great Lakes and Graceland is just a myth. You are absolutely right that nothing east of the Mississippi exists and you have saved countless dollars and time on staying right where you live, never venturing forth to be disappointed in seeing things that are not there.
Hugs, MaryB
PS My feeble attempt at "reverse psychology." !!
Did it work?
Posted by: MaryB on June 25, 2007 03:11 PMWell, the whole numbers conversation has me feeling left out. I just hear numbers as numbers. But I can't wait to try my hand at the BSJ now!!
On another note, I just sent my 13 Dulaan items by expedited post this afternoon. As long as there are no border problems, it will be in Arizona on time!
Posted by: kate on vancouver island on June 25, 2007 05:06 PMI finished my five! Problem is, four went into the big pile of stuff at the Dulaan-a-thaan - does anyone have room in their box for a lone hat?
Posted by: Sarah on June 25, 2007 05:10 PMGreat news on the Dulaan front! I sent in 6 items today! :)
Posted by: Zonda on June 25, 2007 10:45 PMi just shipped out 10 more today, and will ship the rest tomorrow (i know, i'm a bad girl, i wanted to finish the avalanche sweater before i shipped everything) (i have to tie the socks & mittens together before i ship the rest)
Posted by: minnie on June 25, 2007 10:53 PMDoes that mean that you've finished wading through the emails to update that finished participants? I did send mine in on the 15th and tried to send an email.
I think the total is great! Congratulations!
Posted by: Elizabeth on June 26, 2007 07:53 AMWow! The Dulaan count is fantastic. It is hard to picture that many hand-made items all winging there way first to Arizona and then floating half-way around the world and enjoying perhaps a truck ride before settling happily on someone's head, hands, back, etc. I get dizzy imagining the thousands of yards of yarn and yards and yards of fleece involved. Hurrah!
Posted by: Lydia on June 26, 2007 09:33 AMWow. That is so awesome about Dulaan. I'm blown away everytime I see the number updates!
TMK, to break you of your jet lag newbie-ness, you should take the non-stop flight from Seattle to Singapore. You could stay in flight for 18 hours straight. On second thought, I don't think I would want to let you loose on those nice people! HA!
Posted by: Naomi on June 26, 2007 01:00 PMMy 10 items are on their way to AZ as of lunchtime. I also stuck a little cash in the envelope to help with the massive shipping cost. :-)
relieved to finally check that "to do" off my list,
Amy