History Wednesday: The Bletchely Circle

Period fashion! Knitwear! I love the bow.

 I thought I would continue my pattern of history-related posts on Wednesday. For typewriter fans, this might be relevent to your interests. Or, if you're just a geek like me.

Several weeks ago, someone on Facebook posted a quick summary of a new British show called The Bletchely Circle. While the initial description I was given turned out to be way off base, the show itself was excellent. Of course, I'm a sucker for just about anything from the UK, and when you add in the 1940s-1950s costumes I was all over it.

The Bletchely Circle is about a group of female codebreakers who worked together during WWII. Now, nine years after the war, they struggle to lead normal lives after the secrecy and excitement of their time in the military. On the surface, they've moved on--some taking new, quiet jobs, others as housewives and mothers. Susan, however (seated in the picture above, and pictured right) is having a little trouble letting go of old habits.

I couldn't get a good
clipof this outfit, but
it's one of my
favorite costumes in
 the entire show.

When a series of murders happens in London, she begins collecting information through wireless reports and newspapers, slowly piecing together the pattern that the killer is following. As the killer begins stepping up his game, she calls in some old friends to help her piece together the "code" of his behavior.

One thing that I find fascinating about this show is that it was inspired by the actual Bletchely Park (which, by the way, is now on the list of places I want to see the next time I make it across the pond). Considering it was part of the Official Secrets Act, and I didn't grow up studying a lot of British history (I've mentioned before how poorly my school district covered international events), this was the first time I'd ever heard of it.

For those undereducated like myself, Bletchely was a top-secret facility for training codebreakers and studying intercepted transmissions during WWII. It was staffed primarily by women, and was considered to be the deepest of secrets. 

Lucy is one of my favorite characters. She is the
Spencer Reid of their little criminal
investigation, for those familiar with
Criminal Minds.

This show has a great mystery, filled with dozens of twists and turns. On top  of that, there are awesome costumes, knitwear, and some wonderful interactions between the various characters. If you haven't seen it yet, go look it up now. ITV has already announced a second series of four episodes (the first was only three, so it's a really quick watch) to come out later this year. I think the first series is already up on the PBS website for viewing.

For more information in Bletchely Park and what the girls were up to during WWII, here's a short documentary (only about 25 minutes). It's really interesting. Also, now I sort of want an Enigma machine.

A List, Some Reviews, and BOOYA!

1. I recently finished Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light by Tanya Huff. This was her second or third novel, I believe, and one of her lesser known ones. I strongly recommend that any fans of urban fantasy check it out as it is just as good as her Blood Ties books. It follows nicely in the vein of The Enchantment Emporium (or would it be leads, since it came out first?). I found it as part of a twofer, Of Darkness, Light, and Fire, which includes another of her early works. I've only just started that one but it promises to be just as good, if not better.

2. I also finished reading The Enchanted Typewriter. I am planning a more complete review for the podcast, which I hope to record tomorrow. If it doesn't happen then...well, I mentioned at the outset that the production schedule would likely be sporadic. It will probably be November before I manage to get another episode out.

3. Part of that delay is that I am moving over Halloween weekend. No idea when I will regain internet access or how long it will be down.

4. The typosphere has been abuzz with the upcoming start of NaNoWriMo. Just to set the record straight: I have no plans to participate. My only acquaintance with short deadlines is the whizzing sound they make as they zip by and they've nearly decapitated me on an occasion or two so I generally avoid them on principal. I will, however, endeavor to finish Threadbare (formerly known as Fortune's Fight) BEFORE the start of November, if my paying job doesn't suck the life out of me like so many vampires. (Really, it's like Dracula meets Clueless. Never give a vampire a credit card.) I am doing this so that I can work on my Untitled Jazzpunk Novel as soon as possible, because...

5. THE THREE MUSKETEERS IS AWESOME. Seriously. Alexandre Dumas + Orlando Bloom + Matthew Mcfadyen + steampunk = THE BEST THING EVER. EVER! Also, it was total costume p0rn and I want every single outfit and prop associated with Countess de Winter. I have a strong desire to cosplay her at the earliest opportunity.


6. While it isn't truly a costume, I did finish knitting my Quebecois pride hat this week. This has been in my queue for years (ever since I made a scarf based on the Canadian flag). This couldn't have come at a better time, since...

7. Thursday night we drove out to Beavercreek for the Kathy Reichs signing. For those of you unfamiliar, she wrote the books that the Bones TV series are based on, though other than the name and occupation of the main character they really bear no resemblance to the source material. (For those not catching the connection here, in the books Temperance divides her time between a North Carolina university, and working for the government of Quebec. In Montreal. In a building that I am enough of a fangirl to have photographed just for it's relationship to the books.) Sadly, both Mom and I forgot our cameras, so I only have one cellphone picture:


So that is my list of awesome. We'll see what next week holds.

P.S. I just went through to add links to everything in this post, and it appears Kathy's site is down due to bandwidth limits. Looks like that last signing broke teh internets.

Media Monday

So yesterday Mom and Dad got me watching a marathon of Auction Hunters, and I think I'm in love. I enjoy watching shows like Pawn Stars and American Pickers, but AH is now far and away my favorite treasure-in-trash/antiques/restoration show. It was just way more excititing for me to watch than the others (I keep waititng for one of them to find a fabulous old typewriter, but nothing yet. Though the Thomas Edison phonograph on one episode of AH had me totally stoked). Every time I watch one of those shows I have daydreams of working for one of them as a restorer. Sadly, I think the nearest one is 1500 miles away. I've found nothing in the state of Ohio.

---
If you've been on the internet at all today, you have probably heard about Osama Bin Laden. Considering some of the political content of this blog, you might be expecting me to say something pertinent. I'm not going to. Just because he's dead doesn't mean an end to terrorism. It doesn't mean people are going to stop dying, or we're going to pull out of the middle east. He's just another casualty--granted, he's one that we've been hunting down for almost ten years, and a rather famous casualty with a lot of blood on his hands, but he's not the end-all, be-all of the war.

T.V. and Knitting

A couple of days ago I pulled the London Calling cardigan out of hibernation and managed to finish the first half of the front and cast on for the second. I've got about an inch of ribbing to go before I can start the pattern work. I have a feeling this side will take me even longer to finish, because the directions for it pretty much start and end with "do the opposite of everything you did on the other side." Which might just make my brain explode unless I make a chart for it. And I really don't want to have to chart an entire eighteen inches of sweater.

Another thing I finished recently was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I never watched it when it was on tv, but I kept trying and was never able to get into it (usually because I was picking it up in the middle of a season). I finally understand why this show was so damn popular.

Now that my queue on Netflix has a little empty space on it, I've been watching Veronica Mars. I never heard much about this show when it was on (I was surprised that there's more than half a season, I heard so little about it) but it is excellent. If you like a good mystery, go check it out.


Don't forget to submit your opinion (if you have one. Hell, even if you DON'T have one) on the possible move to Wordpress.

Methods of Procrastination

Every one around me is working. It makes me feel lazy, like there's something I should be doing, but I'm not. I can think of a few things, but none that are terribly pressing at the moment. I'm sure it will come to me at 3 a.m., when I can't do anything about it, and then I'll spend hours agonizing over it and trying to fix the problem.

A few days ago, I picked up this book from Paperback exchange. It's not often that I buy a book of patterns, rarer still that I find one with more than one or two patterns I like in it, and I've yet to make a project from a book. I LOVE almost all of the patterns in this book though, and even the ones I don't LOVE, I could see myself loving with a few minor alterations (mostly, the removal of bobbles. I have very strict rules about bobbles, as in, NEVER). I cast on and tried making the Jacket with Frog Fasteners and the Basket Weave sweater (sorry, no Ravelry page for that one), but they didn't work--no problem of the pattern, just the yarn I was using. It's this yarn, which I love and found it at a shop called Skandinavia. It's very pretty, with pinks and purples and oranges, but it looks like barf when it's knit up in sweater form. The color repeats are very short. It actually needs to pool a little to look in any way appealing, so after three tries, I ripped it all out and I'm turning it into a simple, garter stitch scarf for donation. Maybe while I'm home for Christmas I'll make a stop at JoAnns for some nice solid color yarns to make one of the sweaters from book.

I've been watching a lot of internet t.v., too. On Itunes, I check daily for updates of Bone, DollHouse, Castle, and Glee, and I've been re-watching some of my DVDs--I have all of Gundam Wing, and recently had the itch to re-watch the entire series. I was going to watch disk two this morning, but my laptop doesn't seem to like the disk very much. I'll try again later, or maybe I'll just skip it. I'm also thinking re-watching Charmed; I've got the first four seasons. (There's also a possibility I might order the entire boxed series for myself for Christmas, but it might end up being put off until April when I'll be employed again).

I haven't had the bandwith to do a lot of reading, even though I want to. I keep getting antsy, so I pick up my knitting, which makes reading hard, so I've been listening to a lot of podcasts. My standards are Cast On, the Knitmore Girls, Lime and Violet, and Threadbanger (all available through Itunes). I've also recently started listing to Knitting History, since that's the topic of my thesis, and when I just need something in the background, I really like Pastagaline, which is a French language knitting podcast. I don't really understand much spoken French, but I find that I pick up a little more every time I listen. It also helps that I listen to Walk, Talk, and Learn French, and Coffee Break French. For a while, I was also listening to a few podcasts for learning Italian, but I kept crossing Italian and French, so I decided to just stick with the later since it's the language I have the most experience with, and am more likely to use later on.

Recently, I also discovered podiobook, which are like books on tap, except you download them to you ipod. I've been thinking about getting audible for a while, but I'm broke and why pay for an audio book when there are hundreds available for free on itunes? Currently I'm listening to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (read by Jason Pomerantz), which I've been wanting to read since elementary school and just never got around to. I loved the movie when I was a kid, but even more than that I loved the made-for-t.v. Dreamer of Oz with John Ritter starring as Frank Baum. Mr. Pomerantz does a pretty good job with the reading, and I do enjoy it, but for me John Ritter will always be the voice of the Wizard of Oz. We recorded that special on our VCR when I was little, and I watched it until the tape wore out. There's just something so soothing about his voice, I could listen to it for hours. I can't tell you how upset I was when he died.

So that is what I've been doing in my eternal quest to avoid my school work. Maybe now that I've written down this list, I'll be able to focus on studying for one of my exams.

Just as soon as I'm done listening to this chapter.

Odds and Ends

Has it really been three weeks since I updated this thing? Wow. I've been really busy at work, but my hours were recently cut. I've also been hurrying to get all of my Saci paperwork together, but at this point I'm just waiting on my loans and a new credit card (the loans were an adventure in and of themselves, and considering I won't get my overpayment until I'm actually in Italy, the new card is a necessary evil. I hope to pay it off as soon as I get my check).

I ordered the Blood Ties DVDs, and they are here, but I'm tucking them aside until Italy, when I will be with limited internet access and no TV or radio.

Tonight Alice and I are going to a midnight showing of Harry Potter. I was going to put it off, but we have to go into Hilliard so she can go to the bank anyway, and the theater is right next to the bank, so we might as well save ourselves a trip. I'm tempted to wear my black graduation robes and go in costume, but I'm a geek like that. :)

An update on the ergonomic crochet hooks: They're intended for people with arthritis in their hands, I think, not people with carpal tunnel. I find I actually have to do more work when I use them rather than less, which is a pain. I like the fact that they are interchangeable (I love it, actually), but I think I might have to pass them on to someone else before I leave. I wanted to take them with me, I just think I'm better off taking 4-5 of my normal hooks, since I know how to make them work for me with the least amount of pain.

Arrival

We're here: Arlington, VA. No pictures so far because most of it has involved getting lost on the wrong side of the river (and the wrong side of the tracks).

If you plan on going to DC, here are my suggestions:

~Avoid Martin Luther King Blvd south of 295 (I think; like I said, we got lost) unless you plug "where white boys go to die" into the GPS.
~Drive a car that has both GPS and cruise control. Trust me, seven hours without it is NOT my idea of fun.
~If you think it will take you six hours, or less, or whatever time you think it will take, add an extra hour for getting lost. And stop for food BEFORE you get lost.
~If you are coming to DC for the first time, don't try to navigate it in the dark. I swear, our nation's capital took a leaf out of medieval cities of old and made it as hard to get around as possible. Maybe they think it will keep the protesters out?

At this point, I would normally insert a picture, but I was too busy concentrating on not dying and trying to get un-lost to whip out the camera. Also, I left the card reader at home. So conjure up a fitting romantic, patriotic image in your head. While you do that, I'm going to see if I can't sleep on this couch, because apparently, $2100/mo only gets you a one bed, one bath apartment that would fit in my parents livingroom. I'll stick with my $250/mo victorian and it's drafty windows, thankyouverymuch.

Here, there, everywhere.

I feel like I'm wasting space, because there really hasn't been much going on lately. I picked up the knitting/crocheting again, and have started making slow progress. Nothing has been frogged yet--thankfully. The project that is now a shrug has been torn out so many times that I was afraid I had damaged some of the yarn, but it's knitting up nicely and doesn't seem to be complaining.

I started my new job, working for my favorite discount clothing retailer. I won't specify here, just to ensure job security, but I am enjoying it. The pay isn't too great, but I'm supposed to get a raise after I've been there six months, and then again after a year, and I think I'll be there long enough to get those raises. The people have been really nice and they treat their employees well. There is no yarn involved, but I enjoy looking at what comes out of designers heads--mostly though, I make fun of it in my mind (shh, don't tell!); some of them would be...brave choices for the average person, to say the least, and some of them wouldn't be very flattering on anyone, not even the size zeros that most things seem intended for (for the record, our widest selection comes in sizes 8 and 10, which I think is an average size).

Anyway...For those of you who are in the Columbus Area, Alice and I will be at Knitters Connection on Thursday and Friday, checking out the Ravelry forum and the market--sadly, the classes were just too far out of our price range.

I started listening to a new podcast (well, new to me) called Stash and Burn. They have about fifty episodes up, so I've been listening to them starting with the first on that was on Itunes (12, I think). I needed audio stimulation that was both free and entertaining.

Since I last posted, I was introduced to a website called surfthechannel.com. I've been catching up on my Doctor Who, and last night I introduced it to my mom, who was thrilled to see that they have Emergency! available to view. It's been enjoyable and once I finish with the 2005 series I'm going to go back and watch it from the beginning. I'm a nerd like that, I can't help it.

Well, that's about it in my world. What's going on in yours?

Technology sucks (but I love it anyway)

I've been putting off updating until I had pictures, and also because well, I'm in the middle of nowhere and there really isn't much to say.

First though, the pictures.

Once more, I have been thwarted by my camera. I bought a new Fuji FinePiz Z20 almost as soon as I got back. I love the camera. 10 megapixels, internal battery, great quality, even if I paid more for it than I really wanted to. The problem is that my Mac won't recognize it. I've called both Fuji and Apple support. I've tried online. The only solution anyone has been able to offer me is to buy IPhoto or ILife--$129 for the pack, or $75 for the one program. Either way, it's more than I can spend right now.

So. Still no pictures. I can't even try hooking it up to the family PC because, wouldn't you know it? Both PCs are in the shop right now--the power source for the family computer went out, and there's a "disk read error" on mine. Not that it was current enough to use a USB 2.0 anyway.

As for the rest of it--cleaning. Unpacking. Watching marathons of Dr. Who and downloading Torchwood. If you didn't know it already, you can now find it on ITunes. I love ITunes. Keep your eyes peeled for Doctor Who. I've got my fingers crossed.