If only I knew...

If I knew my camera was going to die I would have uploaded my pictures earlier. I'm really not sure completely what happened, but I connected the USB cable to the computer and the computer couldn't see the camera. Well, I first noticed the photo program didn't see the camera, then I noticed the computer didn't. I went to the help menu and followed the suggestion to check that the cable was plugged in properly. All along I'd been ignoring a red flashing battery symbol in the upper left corner. Felt a bit puzzled about that because I had just swapped the batteries a few hours earlier and recharged the dead set. Just took a few pictures, so the batteries should not have been dead.

Back to the cables. I plugged one end into a different USB port on the computer and nothing else happened. Finally I looked at the tiny end of the cable connected to my camera. It seemed to be leaning downward, as if only partly connected. I pushed it in securely and it didn't feel right. I removed the end and saw that the port for that was half misaligned with the opening on the camera. When I tried to attach the cable again, hoping to kind of snag and pull it back in place it totally disappeared into the camera. Seems like I should hear something rolling around in there, but there isn't. Weird. At some point in turning off and on and switching to the view mode the battery symbol went back to all green and charged. Again, no idea why. Probably was before the USB connection broke off and vanished.

So, can't show any pics of the bigger little felted purse that I mostly bungled. Actually I took about 3 pics of that just before frogging it. Had goofed it in several ways: picked up too many sts, increased kfb too many times, and most prominently didn't use the matching zipper I bought to go with the yarn. I thought I'd only bought one dark green zipper to use with either of 2 dark green yarns, but actually had found two zippers, one that favored each yarn. When started the project I didn't realize I was using the less matchy zipper. But as I worked most of the top and nearly finished binding off it just seemed to stand out more and more.

What I had just taken a few snapshots of was version 2 of the bigger little felted purse. Both zippers are about 6.5" total and 5.5" zipper opening. I really like the size and proportions of the bag as the pattern is written, but I suddenly thought I'd like to make the next one wide enough to actually stick my whole hand in. I plan to just scale up all the dimensions. So on v2, the zipper is knit in and the top is completed and bound off. I'm picking up stitches around the bottom to work the body of the bag. For this one I thought ahead and measured out about 120" of yarn before I began attaching the zipper. I tied it up in a butterfly and then when I got to the picking up part around the sts knit through the zipper I folded the excess beginning length in half and then started using that with the crochet hook to pick up those stitches. It was near the end of the failed bigger version that I realized I'd avoid adding tails to weave in if I left a long enough tail at the beginning.

Earlier in the year we got rid of the printer that had been unreliable. It had memory card slots, including one for my dinosaur memory card. The new printer has slots, but not one as ancient as I need. There's probably 8 photos or less on the computer. I suppose the bigger disappointment is that I didn't take the opportunity to get a picture of Mrs. Claus with her hat. Mr.'s isn't finished yet, but hers is and it looks great. Oh well.

I really really dread having to figure out what camera features to look for in a replacement.  Too much stress! Maybe Walgreens can move my photos from the card to CD until I work through a better solution.

Taking a different view

The next thing that occurred to me for troubleshooting was to go sit at another computer and see just what it looked like from there.  In a matter of minutes I've seen the works in progress shows appear absolutely correct with photos displayed as expected, blurs of photos that don't display completely and fade immediately, and also plain white where the photos should be.  And this was with all no intervention at all from me other than viewing, clicking somewhere else and then returning to look again.

This feels far too much like having my brother and sister simultaneously trying to teach me to drive a stick-shift.  And by that I mean all of us in the car at the same time.  They're both younger, but have a tendency to gang up on me, always have.  That's a particularly vivid memory of unresolved confusion.  They both tell me what to do, they correct me and the result is sometimes the car moves forward and sometimes it dies.  The whole process is mysterious; I can't tell what was different at all between the times it worked and the times it failed.  At least here I have a more powerful reassurance that it's not me.  Since no changes were attempted and the result varied based on nothing more than a few more seconds time passing, I'm in an area outside of the sphere of cause and effect.  Feels a bit too familiar, in a very infuriating sort of way.  Random can be very uncomfortable.  Randomness is not usually my friend.

Sidebar Slideshow Hell

I sure wish I could understand what's going one with my Works in progress slideshow.  Earlier this evening I popped in to write a little and change some things around.  Spent some time finding and uploading some photos that go with a Halloween themed post that I started several days ago and still hadn't finished with the relevant images.  Made a few small changes in the design of the blog that seemed inconsequential, like adding a google search in the sidebar.  Suddenly I noticed that while my finished objects are displaying the works in progress right next door is completely blank!  The arrows and buttons are on the bottom, but there's nothing being shown.

Went back to Ravelry, searched the forums a bit.  Opened up the saved file of the code that was running these.  That was saved after copying and pasting via a link from Ravelry and then following the instructions to get my key and change everything the right places to my user info.  Scrutinized what I copied and pasted from the non-working gadget right next to the original text.  What a chore!

At different times and in different places of playing around with this I found sometimes "amp;" would appear after an ampersand (that's what this symbol: & is called; And I promise not to explain why/how it came to be called that - at this time, anyway).  So I started trying to edit those out those four characters, a through semi-colon.  Tried copying the code from the blog gadget for the finished objects, the working one, and changing the text to read "in-progress" instead of finished at the appropriate points.  It just seems every time I look at it something different has happened.   And none of my fixes are producing results that last.

Finally it seemed I had gotten both of the sidebar slideshows - sideshows! - working and then I opened a different tab or window and then went back to the blog and the WIPs was blank again.

Truly I don't need any additional aggravation or anything that would tend to make me feel like I'm losing my mind.  I have lost far more than anyone should have to lose in the first place.  Have been fighting fiercely to keep what's left of my brain ever since.

I suppose my best hope now is that tomorrow things will be normal... Or rather later this morning things will be normal.  I've been fussing with this so very long that it is after 3 AM for me.  I am so beat!

Doesn't everything taste better with dog hair?

I can't vouch for that.  But I remember seeing something, perhaps a mug, suggesting everything tastes better with cat hair.  I don't know because I don't have a cat.  I have a dog.  If I've been tasting her hair I haven't really noticed.  I suppose that means dog hair can be tasteless.  Mostly I've been unintentionally wearing her hair.  The light strands really accentuate my mostly dark and jewel-tone wardrobe.  At times I'll feel a sharp prick on my foot and find one of her hairs actually poking into my skin.  Not stuck against my skin, but a piece I have to grab, sometimes only catching it with tweezers, and yank out.  Who knew that hair could beat skin?

I just finished winding up a center-pull ball from one of the four skeins of String Theory Merino DK that arrived today.  Took a few snapshots, uploaded them to the computer and updated my Rav stash.  When I saw the photos on screen I noticed there was a strand of dog hair prominently on the top of the ball.  It appears in each of the photos just to the right of the plastic center piece.  I'm not sure how it found the opportunity to get there.  I had the winder in my hand and didn't set it anywhere except to prop it against the box part of my swift while I grabbed my camera.  That's not a lot of room for mischief, but I suppose dog hair finds the easiest and fastest path to stick to something everything.

I can be sure most things don't look better with dog hair.  Equally certain that nearly everything I own has dog hair on it somewhere.  There's just no stopping it.