poisonwood's Diaryland Diary

Date: Aug. 06, 2008 . Time: 3:16 p.m.

engine shutdown Entry:

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engine shutdown

As someone who models engines, among other things, for a living, I find this fascinating.

3:16 p.m. - Aug. 06, 2008

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washington snowpack

The results of this study do not particularly surprise me. Personally, I'd really like to go out to that glacier they photograph in this area in September a couple years ago - after an extremely low snow year - and compare to an older photo, and take a photo THIS year. That photo comparison drives me crazy. It's printed in national park booklets around here. It drives me crazy because *I* as a local know that was a low snow year, and that it's not a fair comparison, but visitors from the East coast are ready to be shocked and horrified. If the argument is compelling, why is it necessary to bolster it by taking the photo on that year? The evidence should speak for itself without manipulation.

There's real study on global warming, and it seems widely accepted by the nation's scientists. Then there's the Inconven*ient Truth stuff.

What they agree on:


There's broad agreement that snowpack has fallen sharply since the 1950s, and the apparent rate of decline is lower when you go back to the early 1900s. Snowpack has held steady or even increased slightly since the 1970s.

The opinion of this study:


Despite previous studies suggesting a warmer climate is already taking a bite out of Washington's snowpack, there's no clear evidence that human-induced climate change has caused a drop in 20th century snow levels, according to a new study by University of Washington scientists.

In fact, the newest study also predicts the Cascade snows � vital to water supplies, crop irrigation and salmon � could enjoy a delay in the effects of global warming.


8:56 a.m. - Aug. 06, 2008

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knitting a cardigan

The exercise pill does seem like a lazy way out, but our bodies were developed for a different world than the one we live in. The fact is that a large percentage of the population spends all day sitting in an office not moving, and it's difficult to get an adequate amount of exercise in the time remaining. (What is adequate anyway?) Maybe a time will come when it's standard practice to take a metabolism booster every day, like a vitamin, if you are an office worker.

I started knitting my second Aran sweater about three years ago. Then I met B, and I put it down. Once you put something down, it's hard to take it up again, so after the initial fury of the relationship cooled and I had time again, I still didn't pick it up - until 2 or 3 weeks ago.

I was actually knitting an Aran cardigan, and I'd knit the back and half of one side of the front. That's MAYBE halfway through. In the last 2 or 3 weeks I've been knitting furiously, and I've finished all of it - the rest of the fronts, and the sleeves. (Sleeves are no joke, by the way. Two sleeves are more knitting than the front.) I have discovered that making a cardigan is much harder than making a pullover. First of all, you have to deal with matching the two sides of the front in terms of both shape and pattern. With the somewhat complicated patterns on an Aran, this is not necessarily trivial. The part I found hard was shaping the top the same on both sides.

As I discovered last night, the other annoying part about a cardigan is button holes. I never made button holes before, and it is a pain, though I'm getting better. Unfortunately, the first buttonhole I did doesn't look so great.

Yesterday at lunch I went to a Ke*nt knitting store looking for some kneedles, buttons, and wanting to browse. It was disappointing - only super-expensive yarn and basically no knitting tools. That evening, I went to Wal*mart, hoping for better luck. I was disappointed again, though they actually had a selection of some things lacking at the knitting store. What shocked me was that yarns in the knitting store cost on average 4 times as much as those in Wal*mart. 4x! At least. Finally, I turned to the trusty internet, and found that Ama*zon, for once, isn't great, but Jo*ann Fabrics has a nice selection. The problem, though, is that it's really better to buy yarn in person. I guess I should probably do a tour of the Sea*ttle knitting shops, one after another. There are about seven.

8:35 a.m. - Aug. 06, 2008

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