Getting Craftsy

Earlier this year I have signed up for a Craftsy account. Originally I just wanted to browse a bit. When you're as broke as I am, and I have been really broke for most of my life, so being frugal is second nature, you learn to pick up things whichever way you can. 

For example, if you can't afford buying elaborate crochet patterns, you download freebies, practise them and then look at advanced crochet on Pinterest e.g., and try to figure out how to use the little knowledge you have to make something amazing. It is hard and time consuming, but it is also a creative process I usually enjoy. And that is how I taught myself English, with a pocket dictionary and a huge dose of intuition. "Forgot, that sounds a lot like forget, could it be past tense? Yeah, definitely past tense."

This spring I got sort of fed up with always learning the hard way and I signed up for a few online courses on Craftsy. I was very sceptical, but I hit a block on the road of self improvement, and I rebelled. I wasn't gonna spend hours of digging on the net or asking for favours from people I don't particularly like. My first class was about joining crochet motifs and make a granny square blanket in the progress. I enjoyed it tremendously and learned way more than I thought I would. I honestly recommend it to anyone! 

As much as I love working on these panels, I have not finished the project. Not because of lack of enthusiasm, quite to the contrary. I got so involved with Craftsy and crochet that a number of other projects have hijacked my attention. I will elaborate on those during my verbose November. Hopefully.

Going digital

This is kind of off topic, but I had to share. I love digital TV! We had a digital unit installed about a month ago and I cannot have enough of it. Why, you ask? Well, first of all, I think there has been a shift of balance in entertainment media. Ten years ago movies were quality and television was junk. Nowadays it's just the other way around. Cinemas are full of TV-show remakes and crappy sequels, while television is filled with well written characters played by excellent actors.

So, television is much better than it used to be. And digital television is much better because it lets me flip between languages! I get to watch House, C.S.I. and a whole bunch of movies in their original language! Just what I needed to get my proficiency back. Not to mention how much I enjoy all the different accents! Yes, the image quality is better too, but as I tend to stitch while "watching" telly, it doesn't matter to me as much as the sound.

To complain a bit about television technology, before you think it's all rosy between me and my telly, I am absolutely annoyed with the 5.1 dolby sound. In the case of some movies (the latest ones) I can choose between my everyday Hungarian voiceover, Hungarian 5.1 Dolby Digital, or English 5.1 DD. Problem is, 5.1 was designed for the home cinema gadgets, that is, no less than five loudspeakers. But my telly has only two. Which means that for some movies I must turn up the volume. All the way. On the scale of 100. When I watch TV in Hungarian, that is, "plain" sound, the volume is set on 10-15, and yeah, it wouldn't be a problem, but if the 5.1 movie ends and I am not quick with the remote, the ad block will shout at me exactly ten times louder than what can be called normal.

On another note, I decided to learn another foreign language. I am not sure if I should choose French, Italian or Spanish. I like the sound of all of them and wanna learn them later at some time of my life, but right now I just wanna improve my chances for a good job. I'll need some research on what "sells" best.