I have a filter called "too much information" as a place to put posts that even I, who tend to lead my life on an "open book" policy, understand that the content thereof falls into the category of things which shouldn't be shared with the universe at large.

Thus far the filter contains two type of people--those whom I love, and those who have given me the impression of being understanding and unlikely to twitch if I happen to share something that really does fall under the category of "too much information".

If you are on the filter, you can see the test message (from 31 March of 2009) asking anyone who doesn't wish to be on it to please let me know. If you can't see that message, but would wish to, please let me know. I have enough "friends" on LJ it is possible I missed a few folk who belong on that list when creating it.

Ever since we bought me the nice (used) pair of cute Swedish folk boots with the slighly upturned toes at the annual meeting for the local folk music and dance group I have been wanting to nålbind some liners for them, but made myself wait till I finished the gloves I have had in progress since the trip to France. I finished up the gloves on the way home from Double Wars, so this week I started the boot liners.

I am using a particularily heavy yarn for this project, and a dense stitch as well (Oslo stitch,but taking three threads behind the thumb). As a result I was having difficulties pulling the needle through. On Wednesday that difficulty crossed the line into annoying, and I checked the box of scrap wood and found a huge splinter that had broken off of some board. An hour or so later I had a much longer needle than I have used hitherto and was happily back at work. The longer needle (around 10 cm long I would guess) makes it easier to get a good grip and pull that thick yarn through so many loops. However, after no so much longer the needle started having issues--there is a bending component to the stitch and soon small splinters started to detach from the needle, making it impossible to keep stitching, sincea they catch on the yarn. So I set the project asside and went to sleep.

Thursday evening there was no time to do anything about the needle because we finished making the shelf and shelf support boards for the rope bed headboard. Tonight, however, I was keen to solve the needle problem. So we got out the casting sand and melted down some pewter, and now I have a nice, sturdy, huge needle that is perfect when dealing with the combination of a a thick yarn and a dense stitch. As a result I now have toes done for both liners, and hope to finish the rest of them soon.

In other news, I have gotten to the point of being able to play four different tunes on my hammer dulcimer without looking up what the notes are first, and have started learning tune #5. This one is a bit of a challenge as it has no words, being a Swedish folk dance tune, but it will be fun to learn it.

At work this week I managed to submit for publication the paper from my PhD rsearch (yes, the one I should have had done within a couple of months of finishing the thesis--it is finally done! I am also having fun looking at the thin sections for my samples--I am learning to recognize a variet of minerals that didn't appear in my samples from Tassie.

It is now time for yoga and sleep. We are hosting the end of term bbq for our choir tomorrow, and Sunday will be full of music and dance. Perhaps there might even be figter practice, too; having armoured up once at Double Wars (rose tourney), it would be smart to pratice if I can.

Since leaving work today I:

* Baked homemade pizza (artichoke heart & spinach)

* walked to choir

* enjoyed the last choir session of the term

* walked home

* looked at Double War photos on line

* played hammer dulcimer

* read aloud to lord_kjar (from The Name of the Wind)

* did yoga

* started nålbinding liners for my cute Swedish folk boots

* wrote this post

Now I really should go to bed, since it is 01:00, and tomorrow is a work day...

Today's Cyprus field trip focused on the young sedimentary rocks, so we spent the day along the coast visiting various outcrops. One of the stops brought us to the top of a cliff which curved gracefully around some lovely blue water. In the initial discussion the trip leader commented that the students were to look at the five different sediment layers exposed here and determine how each wa different from the other. He then pointed out that there were two ways to get down to the bottom "one of them is not recommended" he commented, as a random guy, who was also on the cliff top, jumped out into the water, far below. He then pointed out that if we walked around the curve of the cliff to the far side there was a sloped bit that made for an easy climb that would take one past each of the rock units in turn.

As we chatted a bit more one of the boys in our group jumped down into the water. I commented that I wasn't going to--wearing too many clothes, and the pack full of food and tablet (since it was way too hot to leave it in the car). Then another of our boys jumped. Then one of our girls startd to, hesitated, pulled back, approached the edge again, hesitated, pulled back again several more times before another of our girls went ahead and jumped (without hesitating) to show her it was ok. By this time I was gettin more and more tempted. That water looked very inviting. I was hot. I used to love jumping off the roof of the house onto the grass when I was little. Jumping off the Pipline into the snow was fun, too. Yet this was ever so much higer...

The first girl looked like she wanted too, but still she hesitated, and something inside me clicked into place, I would do it. I took off the pack, stripped down to my bra, panties, and sun hat (a wet hat would feel good later!) and put my hearing aids safely into their case. I entrusted the stuff to the students, and over I went. I wanted to hesitate, but the sun was shining on me, and I no longer wore my long trousers or long sleeved silk shirt to protect my skin, so there wa no time to delay, only to do, off I went!

I have never before lept off of something that high before, and it surprised me just how *long* I fell before hitting the water. There was more than enough time while falling to think about just how long it was taking, to wonder if I really just did that, and when I would eventualy reach water. In addition to all of that pondering I must also have curled up and tensed up my neck and shoulders, since while my feet did hit first, my bottom hit firmly enoug to feel the slap of the water, and when I swam over to where people climb back up I noticed that the muscles in my shoulder/neck were a bit sore. Only onthe rigt side at first, but now, hours later, the tightness extends all the way across the tops of both shoulders. I have rubbed them with tiger balm, and will soo go do yoga and get some sleep, which should make them feel better.

One more field day, then 1.5 travel days and I will be at Double War. lord_kjar and the Frostheim bus got there today. He set up the pavilion (without me :-( and sunshade. He tells me the sunshade is huge, and promises to upload photos soon so that I can see it.

I woke up from an odd dream this morning, wherein he and I were setting up the sunshade for the first time at an SCA event with a really odd layout. The site was long and narrow, with a drop-off on each side of it (rather like the narrow hotel bed upon which I wa sleeping). The land was just wide enough to set up the sunshade, with the skinny width filling the land width. Therefore it was necessary to put it up on some sort of scaffolding, so that people would be able to walk under the ends which stake to the ground (same style at the BC) as they walked around site. This made the roof *really, really* high. Sadly, I woke up before I managed to get to a place where I could actually look at it...

Today was cooler, thanks to the rain. We were a bit wet, but this did not deter us from hunting for pretty rocks in the rubble along the cliffs of old mine sites. Found some, too. Photos will follow, after I am home from both Cyrpus and Double Wars.

This morning was the hottest day since we arrived in Cyrpus. It was also the first day we were not in the mountains. I can't really recommend this combination. Our first stop of the day was a "mapping exercise". In this case "mapping" meant measuring a road cut (both sides of the road), drawing the profile of the hill, and then drawing the features of the road cut onto the profile. The students seemed to do reasonablly well with the assignment, but we were all relived whenthey finished and we could get back into the airconditioned cars. It was hot enough that the boys all stripped down to just shorts and shoes and most of the girls were not wearing much more than that. I, of course, wore long trousers and a loose long sleeved silk shirt over my tshirt to keep the sun off my skin (and a hat too). Honestly, I may have been cooler than they were, thanks to the extra fabric.

One of the features of that particular outcrop which made the mapping less pleasant than it might have been was the smell. Some sort of pungent animal dung was along the road, right there between the two road cuts, and in the heat it was rather stronger than I wanted to be around. The mapping took all morning, and then we drove up the road towards our second stop of the day looking for a nice place to have lunch. Not seeing anything really appealing we finally settled for stoping at a small local store/cafe which had a bit of shade. After enjoying my lunch (cous cous, broad beans and zuchini, which I cooked last night) I decided that since it wa so hot I would buy a popsicle at the store. Much too sweet, but the temperature was perfect!

Then the clouds came in, along with some wind, and the day got better. Stop number two wa a cute little mountain peak in someone's backyard. The peak is pillow lava, with a few visible feeder dikes, and zeolites growing in some vessicles. From there we went to an old mine site. Up until they quit mining during a war in the 1970's that location had been mined for about 3000 years. At first just the obvious copper deposits (the name Cyprus and the name copper come from one another), and in recent times the massive sulfide ores.

Then we came back to the hotel early enough to recover from the day by hopping into the pool. The students are now out at a resutrant for dinner, but since I don't eat in the evenings I stayed home to catch up onmail, do my yoga, and perhaps read a bit. Three more field days, and 1.5 travel days left till I get to Double Wars...

We landed in Cyprus last night, got checked into the hotel, turned a blind eye to the roaches (or whatever they are), put the food I brought with me into the fridge (in hopes that the cold + being sealed in plastic containers would keep it safe from the little critters who were here before we arrived), had a meeting with the students, did yoga, and managed to get to bed before midnight.

This morning we started out at 08:00 and headed for the hills (after a stop at the grocery store to buy food for lunch). We spent all day in the mountains looking at various parts of the ophiolites, starting with the deep mantle rocks, and ending the day in the cumulates. Once I am home and can more easily get photos off the camera I will try to remember enough to do a blog post about the geology.

It is now 22:25, so time to do my yoga and get some sleep before we go back out tomorrow to look at more rocks, perhaps some pillow basalt. Five more days to go...

I always love snow, but when it comes at unexpected times, like this week, when the winter's accumulation had almost completely melted, it makes my smile even broader. Sure, it is really too warm for it, I had to break my winter boots back out because of the deep slush on the footpath, but the world really is prettier with the fresh white blanket instead of the brownish grass that hasn't yet seen enough sun to come back to life, the mud, the piles of gravel that are left from having been spread on the paths all winter...

Not too long back vesta_aurelia posted a meme on her journal which said "Comment on this post with "I Love Libraries" and I’ll give you seven things I want you to talk about. They may make sense or they may be totally random. Then post that list to your journal with your commentary. Other people can get lists from you and the meme merrily perpetuates itself."

I was in the right mood when I read that to ask her for an assignment, and she gave me the following words. I had best get around to writing while I still have access to a full computer, since I take only my phone and the tablet with me to Cyprus, and typing is much easier on the notebook.

communicationThis is one of the most essential things in life if one wishes to interact with anyone else. I feel so strongly on this point that, perhaps, I over-share some things, but better to err on the side of caution, which, in my case is more information, not less. It works for me.

dancingOne of my favourite activities; it is such fun to move to music, particularly when lots of spinning is involved. My introduction to dance came in the early 1980's, when I enrolled (thanks mom for doing the paperwork and paying for it!) in a Mid-Eastern Dance class, taught by Josetta of the North Country, in Anchorage, Alaska. I loved that class--prior to that I had never really thought about my body or trying to move specific parts of it just to move them, and to be able to do controlled movements. Not long later I discovered the Medieval/Renaissance dancing in the SCA, and also took to it like a fish to water. I have always had a good memory, and I loved memorizing the patterns of movement and how they relate to the music, and then doing it. More recently I have become addicted to Swedish Folk dancing, which also has patterns of moments to memorize, but instead of matching them to specific tunes and keeping the same pattern to the same tune every time they are associated with types of tunes, and people dance in couples, with the lead deciding which pattern to do at any given moment, so long at it fits the music.

embroideryThis is something I got hooked on soon after I found the SCA (in the early 1980's). I never have sat still well, so having something to do with my hands during lectures and at parties (in meetings, on the bus, whatever), was a good thing. I started with Blackwork, since there was a workshop on it when I was very new to the SCA, and then I expanded to other techniques, with laid-and-couched work being one I have done the most of, I think. Such a fast way to colour with needle and thread. Embroidery was also my gateway drug into hand-sewing. After learning counted thread Blackwork on a very fine even-weave linen I discovered that when sewing straight seams one can make a 1 mm error in where one places one's needle, and it doesn't matter. This makes sewing so fast and easy by comparison that I did ever so much of it. Till I discovered nålbinding, which can be done in the low light conditions that prevail at SCA events in Lochac and Drachenwald, where electric lights tend not to be used at indoor events... I still enjoy embroidery, but don't do nearly as much as when I was younger.

hammer dulcimersmy favourite musical instrument! I first saw them in the early 1980's, and wanted one--they sound so pretty, and unlike violin or guitar, where one has to memorize awkward positions to hold one's hand to get specific notes, a hammer dulcimer is laid out logically, with each string giving a single note if struck on one side of a bridge, and the notes are in alphabetical order, making it easy to find the one needed. For someone like me, who never had music lessons of any sort, this has an appeal. However, despite wanting one that long ago, the cost scared me off, and I didn't actually get one until this year!

monazite u-th-pb chemical dating A fun tool that I kind of miss using since finishing my PhD project. Monazite is a mineral that tends to grow in metamporphic rocks during metamorphic events. Because it contains uranium and thorium, both of which are radioactive elements that decay to lead, it is possible to tell how long has elapsed since the mineral grew (assuming that it had no lead in it to start with) by comparing how much lead it has now with how much uranium and thorium are left. The date calculated in this manner tells us when the metamorphic event was in which it grew, which is terribly useful information when trying to work out the geologic history of an area.

sapiosexualitySuch a useful word! It applies to all of us who find people attractive based on who they are, specifically their brains and how they use them, rather than their bodies/gender/looks. Sure, I enjoy eye-candy; it is nice to see someone with long, beautiful hair walk by, but I fall in love with people when they show me that they have brains and use them--when we have common interests and enjoy time together. Intelligence is an aphrodisiac.

yogaRemember what I said about loving to move? Yoga is, for me, movement. Stretching. Balancing. Balancing while stretching. Head stands. Tree pose. A way to keep my body flexible, strong, a joy to live in. I took my first yoga class in the early 1980's and loved it, but I never remembered to practice outside of class (the same is true for dance). I took occasional yoga classes off and on for decades, but didn't start doing yoga outside of class till I lived in Kotzebue, and made friends with a lady who had a huge library of yoga videos. We would meet every afternoon after school (I was working as a substitute teacher at the time) and do yoga from one of her videos, often repeating ones we'd done before and enjoyed. This helped me really learn many of the poses well enough that when I moved away I could do them on my own. But even so, it wasn't till November of 2004 that I finally started doing yoga every day. Even all these years later I still find my self saying "this feels SOOOOOO good" every day. Why do I do yoga daily? Because it feels so very good that it is its own reward! Yes, sometimes I am really sleepy and should have gone to bed hours ago, but I still make time to do the yoga because it feels good enough to be worth it. That said, the days I get to it early enough that I am not sleepy are even better!

So, there you have it, my writing assignment of the week. If anyone else wants to play feel free to say so, and I will try to give you a list of words in a timely manner, despite my upcoming travel...