Dragging myself kicking and screaming into the 21st century

... alternate title: Vee just bought a Kindle.

Yes. I know. I'm pretty sure I said right here on this very blog (please don't make me go look) (oh, all right, it's over here) that if I got an e-reader it wouldn't be a Kindle, because of that now-you-see-it-now-you-don't trick they played with people who bought an e-copy of an edition 1984.

Well, apparently I lied.  'Cause I just took the 2 gift cards my parents and my sister gave me for my birthday (last Saturday. I'm 44 now. And yes, I still have to do math to figure out my age. The only years I know how old I am are the ones that end in "0."), and applied them to the purchase of a Kindle Fire and a leather case for said Kindle Fire that makes it look like some fancy leather-bound book. Squee. I hesitated a little about placing the order, mainly 'cause I wasn't up for a week playing "chase the UPS guy," but my colleague from work very kindly offered me the use of her address for the delivery. She has a stay-at-home Daddy who loves getting mail. Also, I was dithering a little bit about whether to get the Kindle Fire or the Kindle Keyboard. I wanted the Keyboard version without the sponsor ads (because, really? Ads? In a book?), which made it only $10 cheaper than the Fire, which is in color and can access Netflix and Pandora and all the rest of the Internet. The conversation in my head went something like this:

"Fire's only $10 more expensive."
"You don't need yet another device that connects you to the Internet."
"It's in color!"
"How many books that aren't written for children use color illustrations?"
"I can watch movies on it."
"You can do that on your laptop."
"It's more portable than the laptop. I could use that feature on bus rides to Mom & Dad's."
"Riiiight. Because you know signals are so clear on the winding mountain roads of upstate Pennsylvania."
"Well, to Ditter & Stretch's then."
"How often does that happen?"
"But Fire's only $10 more expensive!"

And so on.  Eventually the stricter side of me gave an exasperated sigh, threw up its hands and said, "Fine. Do what you want." Which of course I was going to do anyway.

In non-Kindle related news, I have been knitting up a storm (2 shawls, another pair of socks, more of those puffy hexagons) while participating in a little competition on Ravelry called the Ravellenic Games. It used to be called Ravelympics, until the USOC sent a cease and desist order regarding the name (yes, really. Don't get me started. Here, read this by Magpie Knitter. What she says pretty much covers my feelings on the topic. The USOC did try to apologize for the tone, and made a mess of that too.  In any event, we shrugged, changed the name, and carried on). It runs in conjunction with the Olympics, because it turns out a lot of people out there settle in to watch the competition with some knitting to hand.

The folks running the tournament made all sorts of events, and you could take your project and enter it into a bunch of events all at once, if it qualified for them.  Only rule was, it had to live its whole project life within the confines of the 2012 Summer Games. It couldn't be started before the Opening Ceremony (with 2 exceptions, one for works in progress, one for something you were planning to take apart), and must be finished by the end of the Closing Ceremonies, which are later today.

The Opening Ceremony, by the way, kicked butt. James Bond and the Queen? The factories coming up out of the ground to forge the 5 rings? Mr. Bean doing Chariots of Fire? The torch hand-off/coming together of the cauldron?  Loved it all. This is the first time I've ever tuned in for the opening ceremony, and I'm glad I did.

I entered one shawl in the Shawl Sailing and another in the Lace Longjump and Holiday Hurdles (for either holdiay themed projects or future holiday gifts), and have received my medals in all three events. I did a pair of socks that I entered in the Sock Put, the One Skein Sprint, and the Cable Steeplechase. I've medalled in two, and am awaiting the call to the podium for the third (Sock Put hasn't been called to the podium since I finished the socks. Should happen soon). Basically, if you finish, you get a medal. The only person you're really competing with is yourself.  I had entered two other events and have come to the conclusion that I'm not gonna make it. I entered a project into WIPs Wrestling (for works in progress) without thinking about why I set it aside in the first place. It's tedious--there's a great deal of counting and double-checking involved. If I'd figured that out sooner, I might have had more time to spend on the goal I set myself for the Modular Relay -- I wanted to do 50 puffy haxagons. I have 30. There is no way I'm going to get 20 more done by this evening.

Oh well. At least I accomplished some of what I set out to do, and I have a better idea of how long things actually take to get done.

And now I am off to write an email to JustMe, who sent me an email an embarassingly long time ago, and who I wrote to recently to assure her I wasn't ignoring her. I'm just scattered and forgetful and busy in fits and starts--the same reason I don't write here as often as I used to.