Well, I have my initial answer for the quilt design:

Initial reaction: it's close.  It's very close.  I have eight stars left over, thus explaining the +8 or -10.  If I want to stick with the current number of rows, I have eight spare stars.  If I want to add one more row, which I believe I do, I'm ten short. Given that I'm sitting on several fabrics I didn't use, I'm fairly certain of my answer. I'd planned to be a bit short on stars for that very reason; I didn't pick out these fabrics, so I was going to be very dependent on lucking into a good order.

Two of those red fabrics just aren't playing nicely, though. I don't want to pull them out of the quilt; I'd rather blend them better. We'll see.

Full evolution of the design is documented at http://flickr.com/photos/domesticat/sets/72157613043153779/detail/

The tally is now at fourteen months, and verging on fifteen.

I'm amazed anyone still reads this site; it has to be obvious that my design time and energy has been diverted elsewhere for that period of time. It used to bother me. I still apologize for it, but I've stopped giving estimates on when I might finally reach the finish line and be 'back.' I don't know. I stopped knowing about six months ago.

In the guise of aliveness, I present two things:THING THE FIRST: should you wish to continue the harmless cycle of attention-whoreness that Valentine's Day perpetuates, consider doing Valentines online. If for no other reason that if I see my friends doing this online, I'll feel less guilty about not sitting down and actually designing/printing/mailing actual creative/funny/amusing/thoughtful/touching/smarmy Vallies on my own.

It's been a long week.Without lapsing into a sea of complaints, I'll say this: right now, I'm overwhelmed and mentally exhausted. I knew going in to this job that there would be periods in which I simply wouldn't be able to cope with the tide of work, no matter how intelligently I planned my time or how many hours of overtime I put in. I'm sliding—fast—into one of those periods. I guessed rightly that it would be coming at the end of January, but I misjudged its strength and ferocity.

Taking a break from my unofficial hiatus due to code work…

Courtesy of Chris Petrilli, I present to you Ministry Script.

'Alejandro Paul designed Ministry Script to be "A time capsule that marks both the American ad art of the 1920s, and the current new-millennium acrobatics of digital type." The idea was to make as many possible variants of each letter as he could possibly handle.'

This weekend I was teased, and rightfully so, about the similarity between knitting and software design. There was, as Brian explained, a vast gulf of difference between something that was 'done' and something that was truly finished and out the door. In software design, 'done' means you've finished coding, and 'finished' means you've done everything that comes after: debugging and testing. In knitting, 'done' means you've finished the knitting, and 'finished' means you have completed all cleanup details, like weaving in your ends and attaching trim.

Twenty-eight new adult-swim-style slide sets are ready to be animated. I thought I'd get them laid out as .png files tonight and animated, but I'm still sitting here typing and it's well past one in the morning. I'm thinking it's time to give up for the night. They'll get animated tomorrow.Winamp is going to cry if I play those songs again. I'm not sure how software plans to cry, but I think it will find a way.

I can finally give you the answer to the question which I'm sure was bothering none of you: "What was Amy's super-secret dragon*con graphic design project that she worked on for all of August?" I held off making these photos available until after dragon*con was in full swing, hoping that no one who was meant to be surprised would be unduly surprised by visiting cat.net.

The past two days have been an interesting experience for me. Normally, I am very much a loner when it comes to the creation of websites; my modus operandi is to hole up in on overly-warm computer room with part of a bottle of wine, some music to yowl with, photoshop, and a text editor. Many hours later, either plunging blood sugar or an overwhelming need for sleep will drive me from my computer chair for sleep or sustenance.Once succor is obtained, I take a short brain break, then return for more.

It's axiomatic: no decent auto repair shops are open on Saturdays.

I sent Jeff off to Tuscaloosa early this morning in my car. I got an extra hour or two of sleep, got up, tended to a few things, and talked with Geof. The end result was that he offered to drive out to "the sticks" to bring me takeout Chinese.