Knitters Guild News: We had another very successful meeting at Customs House today. There were 30 knitters in attendance, and 3 of the newbies joined on the spot. Our growth is phenomenal, and I think it’s only going to increase over the winter. We’ll be getting some promotion in the winter newsletter for the City of Sydney Libraries because we’re going to be helping them with some “Learn to Knit” events in July. The only downside to our popularity is that I think we’ll be looking for a new venue sooner rather than later!

Our new format for the meetings seems to be working out well. Everybody is very attentive for the business portion, and I’ve been managing to get through it all in 15-20 minutes. The real test will be next month, when we try our first workshop in the new space. (We’re doing “Welcome to the Knitternet” to introduce some of the less computer savvy members to the wealth of online knitting information.) As usual, I spent most of the meeting concentrating on keeping everything running smoothly, so it’s not quite as much fun as it used to be. That said, I guess having an organised person running the show means everybody else can relax a bit more. Everybody seems really appreciative of the work me, Rosemary, and Geraldine are putting into it. So the meetings are still rewarding, even if I don’t get much knitting done!

Another adorable free sewing pattern for spring: Tie Top Tank. Saved!

Two surprising bits of news from Indiana this morning:

• Lawmakers are proposing redrawing the Indiana-Michigan border. Huh? Apparently the original border was laid out in 1827 with wooden pegs, and that’s all people have to know where the line is. I had no idea! I kinda thought that even without GPS, surveyors would be able to always know where the line was based on their, I don’t know, magic measurements or whatever. Guess not.
• Elkhart County has slipped to #2 on the unemployment list. #1? Lagrange County with 18.9% unemployment. Jeeeez. That’s the county where I went to high school. It’s the county where several members of my family still live. I just can’t even imagine what it’s like with 1 out of 5 out of work.

Links courtesy of The Elkhart Project.

Chippendale is on both lists of top suburbs to buy houses and apartments in Sydney. High demand from first-home buyers is pushing prices up. Woohoo!

New Harry Potter trailer. Holy crap. That looks AWESOME. I found Half-Blood Prince a little boring at times, but that trailer makes it look action-packed. And I LOVE the reworking of “Hedwig’s Theme” at the end, all bombastic with the horns. (Instantly reminded me of Darth Vader, very sinister and menacing.) At least we get it at the same time as everybody else.

For anybody who is curious or confused about my new business title, you’re not alone. Even people who are actually in this industry aren’t quite sure what the various titles and job duties actually entail. Today I found a great article that finally explains the names and the overlap. Here’s me:

IT Business Analyst – This is the analyst who is generally associated with requirements elicitation/analysis and solving problems using information technology solutions. This role is the bridge between business & IT.

I love that last quote. That’s the key, really. The business and marketing guys have a goal they want to achieve. I take these Feature Requests and turn them into functional requirements and specifications that the tech guys can work from. When the tech guys have an issue – like a technology or resource limitation – I can be an advocate and make a case to the business for what they need. It’s fun! I get to be a bridge, contact point, and translater between lots of different areas of the business. And since we’re so small, I get to have a lot more input in setting up new processes and documenting existing ones that I might have in a big corporate environment.

Spreadtweet. A Twitter client that looks like an Excel spreadsheet, for people in offices with restrictive managers. (I, on the other hand, trade Twitter client recommendations with my manager. Hi Venks!)

Wow. Somebody’s actually created a Mac botnet by infecting users who pirated Photoshop CS4. Yikes. (As Snookums put it: “Good thing I don’t know anybody who would do that.” Me: “Uh… Yeah.”)