Aral Balkan

Stephanie's got a whole bunch of felting-related information, links, and examples up on her blog and she's been felting everything in sight for the past week or so now, ever since I got her a little needle-felting kit from the Make stand at SXSW.

Two nights ago, I tried my hand at it and felting actually is a lot of fun. (If you must know, I'm felting up an adorable little bunny as I write this... no, no, no, I said "felting up", people, "felting up!").

To tell you the truth, I'm really enjoying breaking up my time with non-computer-related activities like Relly's scrapbooking class from a few months ago (she's got another one, Scrapbooking 101, on April 7th at The Werks), trying my hand at felting, and playing with my Arduino boards (OK, so the last one is a little computer-related).

I'd love to hear what you guys and gals do IRL* that doesn't involve staring at a screen and typing.

IRL = In Real Life. It took me a moment to get what that meant when Tantek used it in casual conversation at South-by. And yes, I did Warcraft once... and no, it doesn't call out to me sometimes... "come baaack, Aral, you know you want to get to Level 60, everything's better at Level 60!" :)

Comments

• Just baked a tray of brownies for a birthday dinner. I was going to try a frosting painting* but the frosting turned out to be the same color as the brownies, so I just smeared frosting on top in the usual manner. * http://www.tortillawheel.com/Duo.gif

  by Matt Platte on 2008-03-19 19:44:45

• I used to use the computer a lot in my 'free time' with various extra curricular activities, but not so much any more. Maybe it's my age, where I'm at in life, or maybe just a phase. These days my Girlfriend and I watch a lot of movies, go star gazing, or go fishing. Fishing by the way is the ultimate way to get away from it all. I've considered buying a mobile internet dongle so I can work at the lake but I've so far resisted the urge..

  by Cliff Rowley on 2008-03-20 01:33:41

• At the office we have a nice football table (foosball, kicker, whatever you wanna call it) which is always a great break. At home? Cooking, juggling and hopefully in a few weeks kitesurfing again! I'm sure you could do that in Brighton, no? (Gee what an honest answer again. I'm not juggling! I'm reading your bloody blog! ;-S )

  by Michiel van der Ros on 2008-03-19 21:44:04

• so... are you saying that people can come to you to ask how they can get felt?

  by barry.b on 2008-03-20 00:24:02

• [...] started setting aside a few hours every night to try new things. Two nights ago, I felted. Last night, I played with my Arduino board and light sensors. Tonight, I wanted to play with [...]

  by Getting started with Django on OS X Tiger at Aral Balkan on 2008-03-21 00:01:50

• What about staring at a screen and eating. Oh, and then theres staring at the screen and drinking. No, really, these aren't computer related moments. The first is me at the cinema on a saturday night with a box of popcorn, and the latter is me at the pub with a few mates watching the football.... Man, I'm so boring :-(

  by Lee McColl Sylvester on 2008-03-19 18:39:13