rebecca soble

My log cabin blanket is finally finished after a bit of delay due to distraction by other knitting projects.  But happily the weather is still cool enough in the evenings that a cozy blanket is just the thing when sitting on the sofa.

showing its full 48×44″ dimensions…

The second strand of mohair is what makes it so soft and snuggly…

pretty colors!

I have a plan to make another one, this time with different colors and smaller squares seamed together, probably single strand for a crisper look.  But i might not start it until late summer, or at least until some other projects are finished.

Pictures from Cumalıkızık coming soon….

Thanks to everyone for the birthday well-wishes I received — in three languages. And especial thanks to those who shared their advice for my temporary angst. It was all pondered and appreciated and will be saved and re-read should such an event occur again. If I were to try to summarize everyone’s advice into one concise aphorism, it might come out something like: fuhgedahbahdit! And so I have. Except that I have gotten the idea to look into some online courses related to Informatics or Information Architecture, some sort of CE something-or-other to dovetail with both my MLS and programming backgrounds. We’ll see what I find, if anything.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m turning into a podcastaholic, so I thought I would offer some proof by way of showing you some of my favorite podcasts these days, and perhaps you’ll find them fun too.

Cast On : A monthly knitting-themed podcast from Brenda D, an American living in Wales. Usually about an hour long, with interstitial music.

Business English Study : Specifically designed for ESL students of business english, includes profiles of companies with particular focuses (franchising, business travel, innovation, etc) in three different levels. The website includes lesson materials to accompany the audio files but I generally use just the audio files and the transcripts. Each audio file is about 3-5 minutes, plenty for ESL listening activities.

National Geographic Video Shorts : periodic 2-5 minute video clips on all kinds of topics that are apropos of National Geographic — Shark vs. Octopus, King Tut’s Mummy, Insect Candy, Lightning Strikes, to name a few. I subscribed to these for some fun video clips to show ESL students, but they’re generally interesting as well.

The Economist : Various different podcasts during the course of a week, with titles like “The World Next Week”, “Democracy in America”, “Certain Ideas of Europe”, “From The Paper” and some “Special Report On…” topics. Some of them include interviews with people from the Council on Foreign Relations and I find these especially interesting. Typically 15-20 minutes long.

New York Times Backstory : A very interesting podcast where journalists discuss articles they are working on for the NYTimes. 5-10 minutes.

Bill Moyers Journal : A full hour audio podcast of the PBS television program. Bill Moyers interviews people across a wide spectrum of issues of current importance.

Cooks Illustrated Podcast : A weekly video podcast highlighting a specific simple recipe and general cooking tips.

New Yorker Campaign Trail : A discussion-style podcast between the New Yorker editors and writers about the latest events on the campaign trail. Updated more or less often depending on current campaign goings-on. 10-20 minutes.

NPR Fresh Air : Terry Gross from WHYY in Philadelphia interviews a variety of people on topics from the news, film, music, sociology, etc. Actually I usually skip over the ones on film and music which seems to be a lot lately. But Terry’s interview style is very engaging. 45 minutes.

NPR Intelligence Squared : The complete set of podcasts for this season totals nine, all in debate format with 2-3 debaters for each topic. Audio recorded at live sessions in NYC. Topics have included “Is spreading Democracy in the Middle East a bad idea?”, “Is it time to end Affirmative Action?” and other juiciness. 1-2 hours. There should be new ones in the upcoming year.

NPR Talk of the Nation : Talk show format (host plus guests plus call-in), two 1-hour sessions each day on a wide variety of current events. Fridays include a science-themed hour and Tuesdays include a politics hour.

On Point with Tom Ashbrook

WNYC On The Media

Real Time with Bill Maher

Slate Explainer

Slate Magazine Daily Podcast : I mostly listen to the weekly Political Gabfest, the other ones can be interesting too.

60 Minutes (audio only)

New York Times Video: The World :

Best of YouTube : (Meagan, I loved the “Engineer’s Guide to Cats” too!)

The Moth : ha ha ha ha funny stuff (note: can include some off-color language)

The Ethicist

NPR Car Talk : great background when I’m housecleaning

This American Life

NPR Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me : I listen to this one THE ABSOLUTE INSTANT it’s available. Jess, did you go see the show live last week when it was in Hartford?

PRI Selected Shorts : bedtime stories for adults

20 Minute Yoga Sessions : TERRIFIC

Sorry folks for the slacking off but I gotta head to work. I want to get this posted so you all get my THANK YOU for the wonderful pile of birthday greetings so I’ll just leave the list as it is for now and fill in the details later. Tomorrow Emrah and I are heading for a short 2-day holiday in Cumalıkızık, pictures will be posted afterwards. XOXO

A little of this, a little of that… a roundup of the last month-ish. Mostly working … a fair bit of walking … not enough knitting! Now that the weather is nice, all I want to do is sit outside in parks or outdoor cafes, watching people and ferries come and go and KNIT KNIT KNIT. And drink tea.

My work schedule is now at maximum (24 teaching hours plus travel time) but since all but one class is 1-1 students, every week I have a cancellation or two that eases the load. I’ve been walking to and from work more often now that the weather is warm. It’s about a 40 minute walk total over easy terrain except I’m still befuddled about the correct etiquette for passing people on the sidewalk. The rule seems to be “The foreign lady should step off the curb into the street while the three turks walk down the sidewalk arm in arm with 17 bags completely oblivious to anyone else on the sidewalk”.

A few weeks ago Emrah and I rode a new ferry (for me), from Beykoz meydanı to Yeniköy, and then had a nice twilight walk to Istinye and back. I took a picture of the Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridge, keeping the shutter open extra long because of the dark. And then we drank some tea.

Last weekend it was raining, so after giving up on a plan to go to Camlıca, we ended up at DenizAtı Cafe above the Kadıköy iskele (ferryboat terminal) reading the newspapers and watching the ferries. I worked on the crossword puzzle - in Turkish - and actually got five answers! The problem isn’t understanding the clues, which are relatively simple to read, but thinking of ANOTHER word that means the same thing. Emrah helped me with a few but I don’t think he’s crazy about crosswords, so I let him read the paper. And we drank tea.

This was a while ago, but a couple ex-students Zafer and Tuba (in photo) came to my place and cooked lunch - spanish omelet. We drank tea juice. Also, on the 6th Emrah and I went to a dinner party in Sultanahmet, the 25th wedding anniversary party of a couple friends of mine. We drank champagne, ooh!

Below are a couple of the things I’ve been knitting recently. First, a set of cute coasters for my boss’s birthday. They’re from the Mason-Dixon ballband dishcloth pattern (see Mason-Dixon knitting in my rather short blogroll to the right). And a pillow sham I’ve barely started, using some turkish patterns I found on the internet. I got the yarn for that from the Yarn Han in Eminönü, on a shopping expedition with Anne. The yarn for the coasters came from my local yarn shop - they’re starting to get to know me there, which means they don’t feel the need to follow my every movement while I’m in the store. Every time I buy something, they say goodbye with “güle güle kullanın”, meaning approximately “go and use it happily”.

Good news, the aquarium is alive again! This time the fish (5) are a bit smaller, Emrah replaced the gravel with a more natural variety (his theory for why the original fish died), and I’ve put in a few more plants to give them places to hide and play “obstacle course”. I’m not 100% sure fish like playing obstacle course, but I would if I were a fish.

I still spend a fair amount of time absorbing news from the internet, and I like to keep up with long-distance friends via livejournal and facebook. Whenever I look at facebook and find myself feeling envious about particular aspects of other people’s lives, I contemplate how they undoubtedly must feel different on the inside than they seem from the outside. Everyone has the mundane moments of doing laundry, the difficult moments of personal relationships, the occasional moments of extreme personal angst, right? Yeah, they’re running marathons, doing aid work in Africa, and designing their own knitwear, but for the most part, most people have pretty normal lives, right? Is it possible that my 87.8% mundane life seems interesting to other people who only see it from the outside? Is it possible that I’m living my life okay even though I’m somewhat unsocial, rather scattered career-wise, unmarried and childless, and a bit pudgy, given that I’m also mostly happy? Is it okay that I’d rather knit and drink tea on a sunny afternoon instead of collecting trash while scaling a mountain, rescuing kittens or doing a million other possible good deeds? Can making breakfast for my sweetie count as a good deed? Sometimes I wish I had an overarching purpose for my life, like Al Gore with his slide show, so I could feel useful to the world and less worried about wasting my time here on earth. But on other days I think it’s okay to be just a normal person, living as millions of other normal people do, never to make history or even a really exciting facebook profile. And the fact is that no project has come up yet that makes me want to give up knitting, walking the streets, people watching, and drinking tea.

None of these questions are rhetorical, answers are wanted. And, especially, from what you know of me (assuming you are a friend reading this), what kind of life-project could you imagine me taking on? Inspiration wanted.

Registration for commenting has been temporarily suspended as I await your answers. Big hugs to everyone. XOXOXO Now, how about a glass of tea?