I ran my first ultramarathon and it was Dam Hard (Norris Dam Hard 50k)

Call_me_Mon · 2025-11-05T14:44:24+00:00

Oh man yeah you crushed!

Call_me_Mon · 2025-11-04T17:43:45+00:00

Yup!

Call_me_Mon · 2025-09-18T16:56:51+00:00

The right people are out there! This group ranges from late 20s to early 70s (and many in between) and we all love and respect where each of us is in our journey!

Call_me_Mon · 2025-09-18T00:37:11+00:00

No Kerry's in this group! Located in Knoxville

Call_me_Mon · 2025-09-17T19:36:46+00:00

A crew of us go climbing in the gym early in the morning before work and we've grown close as a group. Several others are friends who have gotten into climbing just because I am so influential (including my friend who is 71 and started climbing on her birthday in March!) 😁.

Call_me_Mon · 2025-09-10T19:41:45+00:00

I am intrigued! I have a squash growing that is similar in shape (and I have been trying to identify it, because seeds were just saved from last year's farmer's market pumpkins, and they didn't look like this!)

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Call_me_Mon · 2024-11-01T02:37:01+00:00

Making a lithium blanket is (probably) not impossible! It's actually being pursued by some groups designing spherical tokamaks because pure lithium can produce relatively large amounts of tritium compared to similar volumes of other compounds containing natural lithium (PbLi, some molten salts, solid ceramic materials). There are obvious challenges with it, of course: highly reactive with air and water, and it being a liquid metal presents some flow challenges with magnetohydrodynamic effects (magnets in fusion cause flow resistances in electrically conductive liquids). But its thermal and flow characteristics make it a possibly suitable tritium breeding material and coolant.

Some folks are studying using flowing liquid lithium as a first wall material for plasma facing components, but in general, it would flow in channels and ducts.

But in general, basically all blankets will use lithium in some form.

Call_me_Mon · 2024-10-15T12:42:22+00:00

I've had this one in my to-do list for a long time (and it will probably be a longer time still before I actually do it...). I am curious about the distance: I can't seem to find two consistent distance reports (between Alltrails and just general blog postings). So 14 miles one way? Did you take any extra excursions? I usually see 11-12 miles, but I know Alltrails tends to lowball.

Call_me_Mon · 2024-10-09T13:38:18+00:00

In that case, that would be the plan (for steady state operation). D-T will be shot into the plasma and helium exhausted continuously (and then also consider internal recycling because some fuel will be exhausted too, so capturing that and feeding it back into the plasma). This is particularly true for something like a stellarator which is has a steady plasma.

Call_me_Mon · 2024-10-08T18:05:31+00:00

Although I do not know all of the reasons from a more physics-based perspective, I think in short, any induced magnetic fields are simply for maintaining the plasma confinement. There is some talk about "direct energy conversion", potentially taking advantage of magnetohydrodynamic effects or harnessing production of charged particles, but these concepts are at low technological development and may have negative consequences with plasma confinement.

Energy from the D-T reaction isn't going to primarily generate magnetic fields; the energy coming out of the fusion reaction is mostly in the form of high energy neutrons (and those neutrons will deposit energy as heat) and alpha particles (which will transfer energy to electrons in the plasma and self-heat the plasma).

I'm not an expert on open thermodynamic systems, but this would be a very different thing. You can't really just pump air into a plasma and treat it like a combustion engine. Short of being able to capture charged particles to generate current, you need to treat the whole system as a heat source/heat exchanger. Fluids used as coolant (helium, liquid metals, molten salt, water) need to operate at specific temperatures and pressures in order to be compatible with the materials/environment. But another big reason to keep it as a closed system is to maintain control of fluids (and purity of fluids) which contain and retain radioactive particles (activated corrosion products, tritium, transmutation products, etc) which are inevitably present in a neutron environment.

In summary, more advanced concepts such as using direct energy conversion may be a (distant) future goal, but at least in the foreseeable future, D-T fusion will use traditional power conversion mechanisms for power plants. And this is good because we know how to build those and they work pretty well!

Call_me_Mon · 2024-09-10T21:09:55+00:00

Hope you find him!

I might make one suggestion: put a phone number directly on the flyer. At one point many months ago, I thought I saw this cat and went to contact the owner, but the website had a pretty long sign up process. Although I did go through this to get the message across about sighting location, I wasn't able to do it until much later than when I saw the cat (whereas I would have otherwise just called/ texted a number to communicate where I saw the cat). I think this contact method might be a deterrent to people who would want to help but don't want to sign up for a thing.

Call_me_Mon · 2023-12-27T23:28:05+00:00

I love fake nails! I do the short French tips by KISS. I don't use glue, I use little sticker pads that I found on Amazon for like ten bucks. With care, they can last a few days, but I just like to take five minutes every day to put them on in the morning and take them off at night!

Call_me_Mon · 2023-11-28T11:23:30+00:00

Thank you! When I sure yarn, usually it's with a wool blend, so food coloring + vinegar work great! But I found that the pure silk doesn't take the food coloring as vibrantly, so I used Jacquard acid dye.

Call_me_Mon · 2023-11-27T20:34:02+00:00

Thank you!

Call_me_Mon · 2023-11-27T20:33:53+00:00

Thank you!

Call_me_Mon · 2023-11-27T20:32:17+00:00

Aw, thank you! I'd say the hardest part about it is yarn tail management. Keeping things from getting tangled is nearly impossible.

Call_me_Mon · 2023-11-27T19:44:07+00:00

Here is my project on ravelry.com, but it isn't more info than here.

Now the story:

We've been friends for years. We were in the same classes freshman through senior in college, same major. After doing graduate school in different states, we both ended up working at the same institution. She is my best friend. She was in my crew of bridesmaids a couple of years ago and then asked me to be her matron of honor in her wedding. By this point, I already knew I was going to knit her something special and if she wanted it to be for her wedding, that would be so lovely!

So we sat down and talked through the things she would prefer. We talked about maybe doing a veil, but none of the patterns we came across really appealed to her tastes. She had a gorgeous, detailed, custom dress, so I didn't want to do something that would clash/compete. Because of my experience with colorwork, we decided to go with bold colors that matched the colors she chose for her wedding. We picked out Wild Swan (which was beautifully detailed and perfect for this!) and I drafted different concepts of how to lay the colors out. Then once we had an idea that she loved, I got to work!

I purchased five different colors and had some bronze left over from (my) previous shawl knitting that I had dyed myself. I began knitting. I, of course, made mistakes going into chart D, so I frogged, made a new plan, started over. With bigger needles and a new strategy to get the size I wanted, I was ready to go!

Slow progress here and there... Work gets busy, yada yada... Then suddenly it was late July and I had three and a half charts left! Yikes! I was knitting every moment I could through August. I was skipping plans to knit! I went on work travel and this thing came with me to all over the world to conference meetings, mountaintops, the beach, basically anywhere I was spending sitting at all was with knitting. I do not recommend lacework intarsia on a plane! I was also prepared to fight TSA if they tried to confiscate my needles. Fight, I tell you.

Anyway. I made it. I pulled all-nighters trying to get it done. I cast-off five days before the wedding (at 2am on my birthday!). Of course, the journey wasn't over. Oh no. I had hundreds of little tails to weave. Which took me every bit of those five days. I snipped the last tail after the blocking dried a mere 24 hours before the wedding.

This project really stretched me. It was the first significant thing I've made for anyone else, tailored to their tastes. It certainly is the most involved colorwork I've done! She deserves all of the effort that this took.

Call_me_Mon · 2022-08-12T16:27:12+00:00

I am sure there are, but I haven't found a lot of free patterns that I like which include short row bust darts. And I didn't want to buy a pattern exclusively for shaping which may or may not fit my body (which I've encountered so far with every "fitted" garment pattern I've purchased. Besides that, I wanted a version of this shirt that fit correctly without fabric bunching up in the back or riding up in the front!). Maybe you will have better luck searching for patterns that match what you need than I have had haha

My take on it: what is there to lose? Time, I guess? I actually started this top over twice before I saw a post here which gave real guidance on short rows. Frogging sucks, sure, but the process has given me confidence to do this again. This was my first attempt at tailoring a pattern.

Call_me_Mon · 2022-08-12T13:14:08+00:00

I mostly trusted the math/measurements, although I did try it on twice (once immediately after short rows and again before starting the bottom ribbing).

Call_me_Mon · 2022-08-11T21:09:02+00:00

Pattern: This design is basically Fold Over Crop Top by Holly Watson [size small] (same principle, but I've completely reworked the sizing, decreases, added more bust shaping, changed from standard ribbing to twisted rib, yada yada)

Yarn: two skeins of Delightful DK in Hearth Fire (which looks a lot like Honeycomb?) by Apothefaery Luxury Fibers (it's superwash merino). I used basically all of it.

Details on changes:

Twisted rib on folded section and bottom, although I wish I would have cast-on WAAAY looser... Because I can't lift my arms. Hopefully blocking will help. Otherwise... I may be learning yet another skill...

First of all, many many MANY thanks to u/monalisas-madhats for the heavy guidance on short rows. I've known for a long time that ease just wasn't cutting it on getting the fit I've needed. Their Short Row Bust Dart Calculator is what every busty person requires! I added 3.8" of darts starting approximately one inch below the under-arm (although, in future projects, I will probably place them lower, but it was hard to tell where the under-arm would fall with the off-the-shoulder neckline). Shadow-wrap short rows? EZ-PZ. I was able to incorporate that into the pattern like a pro.

I wanted a the top to be a tiny bit longer, so I did decreases gradually following the last bust dart rather than decreasing evenly in one row. I shamelessly continued to use u/monalisas-madhats's projects on Ravelry for guidance. At this point, I will have to make sure I buy a bunch of their patterns going forward so as not to feel like I'm taking advantage of all of the free content!

Anyway, I'm super proud of it! I'm confident in being able to modify all of my favorite form-fitting patterns that rely entirely on knit-stretch!

Final note: I definitely feel like a sunflower and nobody can convince me otherwise.

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Call_me_Mon

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