If you go to the museum to stitch...

As Jacqueline would always say.

I always wonder...in Japan, stitching in public would be considered a dangerous act, because you use needles and sharp scissors. I would certainly expect to be told to put it away.
I could take my Mary to the theatre but would not dare stitch there.

Are US and European people more tolerant because stitching is more of a common hobby?
Or is it simply that outside of Japan, people have more space and are placed farther away from each other that it wouldn't matter if the person sitting next to you had a needle in hand?

I wonder.

Today I found out there is a Japanese embroidery class in a museum in Kobe.
The class is in October...I plan to go down and register.

So in that way, I WILL be going down to the museum to stitch!

A little too much Jane...

Being too lazy to take off the Q-snaps and iron...here is what little stitching I got done this weekend.

I was working quite dilligently though.
It is as though I have wandered into a jungle of unknown....the software which I would be responsible for explaining, if any of the Japanese stitchers choose to purchase it.

Another 5 days!

Lost and Found?

Yesterday, I was preparing to move out, so my desk could be used by someone who was transferring into our department as of next week.
And under the foot of the desk, I found a silver pierced earring. A nice one I could tell, because it was well-shaped (like a Tiffany earring would be) and letters were engraved on the post.

I had just moved to this desk this spring, and before that, it had been occupied for two years by the colleague-friend of mine which I mentioned in an earlier post.
That very morning we had been told that her sick leave had been extended by another month.

We had been instructed by the company clinic to NOT contact her, so that she could take her mind off work as much as possible.
I was told especially to not to, by the company physician. More for my sake, she said - she said she was worried more about me than she was about my friend.

However, not knowing when or if she would be back - I decided to request the company nurse, who was corresponding with my friend, to ask on the next correspondence if she had lost an earring.
I was half expecting a "no", but the nurse said yes, and asked for a photo of the earring, which I sent it over (my boss was puzzled as to why I was photographing an earring!)
And in less than an hour, the nurse called me and said she had confirmed with my friend and said yes, indeed it was hers - she had lost it six months ago. And very happy it had been found, because it was a treasured earring.

When my friend lost it, she must have looked and looked for it under the desk - it was not found when she moved out - and I did not find it when I moved in. Where it had been for the past six months is a complete mystery.

Next day (today), the nurse instructed me to give it to the administrative assistant from another group (also a friend of hers), and send to by courier.
I conjured up a little envelope with some bits of ribbons I grabbed on my way out my apartmentm because I wanted to protect the earring but could not find an accessory pouch; and handed it over.

I had been in high spirits since the day before, because - I actually found something I could do for my friend, after months of watching her suffer and not being able to help.

And now, I could remember my friend six months ago - she was dressed up in a suit for an important meeting, wearing the silver earrings and a necklace to match - and she was beautiful.

I wish a person can find oneself as easily as finding an earring, even if it had been lost for six months.

Shay - thank you for your kind comments about my friend, I think I am learning to wait and hope for the best.

Blogger Blues

For the past two weeks I have been struggling with what most fellow US/EU stitcher-bloggers do as easily as breathing - the Blogger.

Since the blog was to be released within days of my hearing about it, (Jacqueline already had the address and template ready) I requested that Jacqueline kindly arrange the sidebars so I could concentrate on TRANSLATING - which should have made things a whole lot easier for me; I only had to go and change the English descriptions to Japanese.
I already knew how to upload pictures and post articles, so that was not a problem.

The biggest issue I came up with was the "Japanese style font".

Although the Blogger is Japanese compatible - apparently it did not take into consideration whether the Japanese font in the template looks pretty or not.
So the default for the customized template (What in the world is Trebuchet MS?) showed up as what I consider a "ghostly" style font.
The type of font non-Japanese natives would use - like what you see on T-shirts sold in the US that say Kamikaze or Harakiri or other words that you are not supposed to mention in Japan.

I don't know about other people but I really prefer clean, gothic type fonts - in English, I would prefer Arial over Century (just as an example. I do like Century).

So I googled and wandered over cyberspace and found a way to change the font, which was to edit the HTML template; a very dangerous task, because if I destroyed the template, it would blow the blog itself and what would I tell Jacqueline?

However, being the determined person I was, I started on it.
Here is what I started with:
type="font" default="normal normal 100% Georgia, Serif" value="normal normal 100% Georgia, Serif">

Here is how it ended up:
type="font" default="normal normal 100% ＭＳ　Ｐゴシック, MS PGothic, Arial, メイリオ, ヒラギノ明朝 Pro W3, Hiragino Micho Pro W3, Georgia, Serif" value="normal normal 90% Georgia, Serif">

I chose "MS PGothic" as basic Japanese font; I listed as many Japanese gothic fonts as I could for Vista and MAC users, and somehow managed to leave Georgia for the English parts, because I found it pretty.

Then I DID THE SAME THING 10 TIMES for the headers, the sidebar headers, footers...

I posted the html - but FOUND THAT THE FONT DID NOT CHANGE.

So I wander into cyberspace again, and got information that I needed to make some adjustments on the font setting on Firefox, the browser I usually use for the Needleprint blog.
Soon the problem was fixed, I had a pretty looking Japanese blog, and I was happy -
until I opened it with Opera, the browser I use to look at my personal blog and other Japanese stitcher blogs.

I FOUND THAT THE FONT DID NOT CHANGE!!

So I wander into cyberspace AGAIN, having learned that perhaps I need to change the font setting of Opera - changed a few things- and looked at Needleprint blog again.

I FOUND THAT THE FONT DID NOT CHANGE!!

What was more, by changing the font setting, the blogs which had been shown nicely before was now shown in an awkward font setting.

SO I GAVE UP ON OPERA.
I really hate the way Opera restores its original setting even when it is un-installed and then re-installed. What is uninstallment for?

It is ironic that Internet Explorer 8, my last choice, because of my many experiences of IE7 crashing in showing Needleprint blog and producing gazillion windows - presented the nicest arrangement of fonts in the revised HTML setting.

I also learned in the meanwhile that "adding contributors" (up to 100) came as simply as setting something up on the sidebar, which was shocking.
All the worries I had experienced on my Japanese SAL blog, because it is not meant for multiple users - what was that? (not to mention I could never find time to learn how to customize the template).
Other Head Girls have so much nicer looking blogs and they use Blogger!

I know it is the CONTEXT that counts, but I still want the blog to be neat-looking and attractive.

I am trying not to notice the fact that 99% of the Japanese readers do not have what is required to comment easily on Blogger blog - a Google account.

How I wish I had more IT literacy.

Paule - I could start another blog, but not in Japanese and not Blogger please - I can't go through this again.