2)
3)
that's what you get for whistling in the elevator, Biff.
3.05.2008
3.03.2008
3.01.2008
Apathetic = Pathetic
I guess I'm a hippie at heart.
I secretly wish everyone would just get along with everyone else, and that we could have peace, love, legalized drugs... all that fun stuff.
But I'm also a realist. I know enough about the nature of man and of the world to accept that perfection is unattainable. It seems like humans are driven by one thing: power (money, fame, good looks, popularity - they're all different ways of obtaining it). And power, as we all have learned from every comic book villain in existence, leads to corruption.
"Oh, I want to build this ginormous laser to help people, to save lives..."
Sure, and get filthy rich and have sole control over the world's supply of potable water/oil/electricity/whatever...
I'm not interested in politics. Frankly, (and my apologies to any government worker who happens to have me on their blogroll) I think politics is a dirty, repulsive, backstabbing business, and can't imagine why people seem so eager to get involved in it.
I took PolySci. I hated it. But I did learn a few things (with little thanks to my professor or textbook).
Firstly, apathy is your worst enemy. Yeah, there's a chance your vote won't count for anything, let's be honest. If you're voting democratic in a solidly red state, you're not going to change the color, or even make purple. And independents? It almost seems like they're wasting their time (next post's rant: give proportional representation a chance!). But who knows what could happen if everyone who didn't vote because they thought their vote wouldn't count for anything decided to go to the polls?
According to the first legitimate-looking website I could find on Google, eligible voter turnout in 2004's November election was FIFTY-FREAKING-FIVE PERCENT. This number simultaneously scares, saddens, and astonishes me. Almost half of our eligible US population, for whatever reason, decided not to vote on who should run the country for the next four years. I can't understand it.
Government should be run by the people, for the people. Not by 55% of the people for 55% of the people. There are plenty of countries that have never been given the chance to have any input about who governs. There are also countries where the people are forced to vote, and there may only be one name on the ballot, or they know someone will come hurt them and their family if they vote the "wrong way". In the USA we have the right to vote - and we also have the right not to vote.
So no matter what your opinion (I really don't care - as long as you have one, and you don't try to shove it down my throat without politely listening to my point of view), if you don't act on it, it's worth absolutely nothing. Whether acting on it means voting (yay!), educating others about it (ahem, radical pro-lifers, how bout some sex-ed [abstinence-only doesn't count] instead of bombing abortion clinics?), or just living it (practice what you preach, actions speak louder than words, etc.), even if I blatantly disagree with you, I'll respect what you're doing.
I apologize for this brief digression from yarn, knitting, and other more knit-blog friendly subjects (i.e. pets and children... whew. if I have to read one more post about what someone's cat has to say about a certain brand of yarn, I'm going to lose my mind.), but I had to get it out there.
I secretly wish everyone would just get along with everyone else, and that we could have peace, love, legalized drugs... all that fun stuff.
But I'm also a realist. I know enough about the nature of man and of the world to accept that perfection is unattainable. It seems like humans are driven by one thing: power (money, fame, good looks, popularity - they're all different ways of obtaining it). And power, as we all have learned from every comic book villain in existence, leads to corruption.
"Oh, I want to build this ginormous laser to help people, to save lives..."
Sure, and get filthy rich and have sole control over the world's supply of potable water/oil/electricity/whatever...
I'm not interested in politics. Frankly, (and my apologies to any government worker who happens to have me on their blogroll) I think politics is a dirty, repulsive, backstabbing business, and can't imagine why people seem so eager to get involved in it.
I took PolySci. I hated it. But I did learn a few things (with little thanks to my professor or textbook).
Firstly, apathy is your worst enemy. Yeah, there's a chance your vote won't count for anything, let's be honest. If you're voting democratic in a solidly red state, you're not going to change the color, or even make purple. And independents? It almost seems like they're wasting their time (next post's rant: give proportional representation a chance!). But who knows what could happen if everyone who didn't vote because they thought their vote wouldn't count for anything decided to go to the polls?
According to the first legitimate-looking website I could find on Google, eligible voter turnout in 2004's November election was FIFTY-FREAKING-FIVE PERCENT. This number simultaneously scares, saddens, and astonishes me. Almost half of our eligible US population, for whatever reason, decided not to vote on who should run the country for the next four years. I can't understand it.
Government should be run by the people, for the people. Not by 55% of the people for 55% of the people. There are plenty of countries that have never been given the chance to have any input about who governs. There are also countries where the people are forced to vote, and there may only be one name on the ballot, or they know someone will come hurt them and their family if they vote the "wrong way". In the USA we have the right to vote - and we also have the right not to vote.
So no matter what your opinion (I really don't care - as long as you have one, and you don't try to shove it down my throat without politely listening to my point of view), if you don't act on it, it's worth absolutely nothing. Whether acting on it means voting (yay!), educating others about it (ahem, radical pro-lifers, how bout some sex-ed [abstinence-only doesn't count] instead of bombing abortion clinics?), or just living it (practice what you preach, actions speak louder than words, etc.), even if I blatantly disagree with you, I'll respect what you're doing.
I apologize for this brief digression from yarn, knitting, and other more knit-blog friendly subjects (i.e. pets and children... whew. if I have to read one more post about what someone's cat has to say about a certain brand of yarn, I'm going to lose my mind.), but I had to get it out there.
2.19.2008
Yarrrrn.
The sun finally came out tomorrow, and I snapped a few quick shots of my recent yarnapalooza.
I'm not terribly sure of the fiber content, because most of this was very graciously donated by the ladies of The Texas Twisters (aww :]), but I think L to R:
Black alpaca fingering weight, rose quartz alpaca/wool worsted, pink corrisdale wool DK/sport, gray alpaca/ wool worsted.
yayy, I'm a spinner!
Oh, and chalk up two new knitters: a random friend of my sister's learned to knit and purl purfectly in about a half hour (hate. hate.), and my dad's been knitting for a few weeks now, and got hit on by a stewardess when he pulled out his garter stitch dishcloth on the plane. Hehe.
I'm not terribly sure of the fiber content, because most of this was very graciously donated by the ladies of The Texas Twisters (aww :]), but I think L to R:
Black alpaca fingering weight, rose quartz alpaca/wool worsted, pink corrisdale wool DK/sport, gray alpaca/ wool worsted.
yayy, I'm a spinner!
Oh, and chalk up two new knitters: a random friend of my sister's learned to knit and purl purfectly in about a half hour (hate. hate.), and my dad's been knitting for a few weeks now, and got hit on by a stewardess when he pulled out his garter stitch dishcloth on the plane. Hehe.
2.15.2008
Etsy!
Hey, Kids.
I've been a bad blogger. I have literally TONS of new projects and other various extracurricular activities to report on, and I haven't posted in weeks. And as it is now rapidly nearing midnight, it's unlikely that I'll cover it all in this post. But I'll see what I can do before I get tired.
First, spinning has grabbed me pretty hard and doesn't show signs of letting go. My knitting has had to compete for a place in my packed free-time schedule. Damn it, I have too many hobbies. How is one expected to save money for college, apartments, cars, or even food and clothes when there are so many other things to buy (like roving, yarn, spinning wheels, paints, brushes, dyes, canvases, easels, silk screens, light boxes, ceramics wheels, kilns, sewing machines, fabric, and so on and on...)?
The only solution is to find a means of profiting from one's creative ventures. Which I am in the process of doing, with my brand new etsy store! I had a lot of trouble at first figuring out what I could sell, because up until now most of my knitting had been from copyrighted patterns. So I've had to dig deep within the dark reaches of my creativity to find a pinch of originality. I'm not in love with some of the things I've come up with, but it's exciting to do something that no one else has done, even if it's not the most drastically unique thing ever.
Something I'm really struggling with now is pricing. All my work is worth a lot to me, but I want to be reasonable so I have a slight chance of actually selling something now and then. My materials cost is usually pretty good, but if I want to charge based on how many hours I spend working on a piece, I'd be charging $100 for a neckwarmer. I'd love to get some suggestions from a few seasoned sellers and buyers of handmade items.
That's all I can do for now. Copious amounts of pictures next post, I promise.
I've been a bad blogger. I have literally TONS of new projects and other various extracurricular activities to report on, and I haven't posted in weeks. And as it is now rapidly nearing midnight, it's unlikely that I'll cover it all in this post. But I'll see what I can do before I get tired.
First, spinning has grabbed me pretty hard and doesn't show signs of letting go. My knitting has had to compete for a place in my packed free-time schedule. Damn it, I have too many hobbies. How is one expected to save money for college, apartments, cars, or even food and clothes when there are so many other things to buy (like roving, yarn, spinning wheels, paints, brushes, dyes, canvases, easels, silk screens, light boxes, ceramics wheels, kilns, sewing machines, fabric, and so on and on...)?
The only solution is to find a means of profiting from one's creative ventures. Which I am in the process of doing, with my brand new etsy store! I had a lot of trouble at first figuring out what I could sell, because up until now most of my knitting had been from copyrighted patterns. So I've had to dig deep within the dark reaches of my creativity to find a pinch of originality. I'm not in love with some of the things I've come up with, but it's exciting to do something that no one else has done, even if it's not the most drastically unique thing ever.
Something I'm really struggling with now is pricing. All my work is worth a lot to me, but I want to be reasonable so I have a slight chance of actually selling something now and then. My materials cost is usually pretty good, but if I want to charge based on how many hours I spend working on a piece, I'd be charging $100 for a neckwarmer. I'd love to get some suggestions from a few seasoned sellers and buyers of handmade items.
That's all I can do for now. Copious amounts of pictures next post, I promise.
1.23.2008
You Spin Me Right Round, Baby, Right Round Like a Record
Hello, Blog.
I dropped (or am in the process of dropping - I just skipped today) my Art History class, so I finally have a little free time and can sleep in on M/W/F until 9. This has increased my quality of life by like 96%.
I really thought I would enjoy Art History; that it'd be a fun, blow-off class for my blow-off senior year. But no. Looking at the syllabus, it'd be more work than Anatomy. Besides that, I'm not really into spending 15 minutes of class doing "art news," which seems to me to be the college equivalent of the dreaded current events reports I had to do for a whole year in 9th grade Social Studies.
Plus, the professor is partially deaf, repeats everything you say twice, and acts like she's scared to death of all her students. Not how I think an art teacher should be.
So as soon as I hear back from an adviser, I'm out of there. I'm keeping the book, though. I'll probably take the class again when my boss's friend starts teaching it at my campus.
So... fiberwise.
I'm spinning! It's pretty much the coolest thing I've ever done in my entire life. My darling mother found the wonderful Miss Cindy in our city's little directory, living less than 10 minutes away, and we went over to her house before Christmas to see her sheep and alpacas.
Annnd we signed ourselves up for spinning lessons immediately. Two lessons later, and I've gotten pretty comfortable with both the drop spindle and the wheel. I think we'll be plying next lesson. Yarn pictures to come!
Weather has been rather freezing lately, so I've been pretty prolific in my knitting.
First, the rather disappointing Headline News.
I used Wool Ease, just because I had it on hand, but I think it was a mistake. With the huge needles the pattern calls for, it makes a really holey fabric that's kind of disgusting after knitting worsted weight socks on size 2 needles.
Next, a commissioned (yay!) space invaders beanie for my friend Josiah. Inspired, of course, by my amazing space invaders tea cozy.
This uses black Simply Soft, and - get this - GLOW IN THE DARK NYLON. I know. It blows my mind. I've been trying really hard to get a glowing picture of it, but I think I'm going to need a tripod and a really long exposure camera. It's not the softest, and it's splitty as hell, but HELLO. It glows in the freaking dark. Unfortunately, my fair isle is not quite up to par yet, and I didn't make it stretchy enough to fit its intended owner. So I'm knitting another one!
Next, a little something I call Roxy Hart, because it reminds me of the kind of cloche Renee Zellweger wore in Chicago.
This was basically me practicing granny squares (my first!), and when I found myself with an alarming amount of them, I slip stitched em together and picked up stitches around the top to make a hat!
I've got a few other projects to post later, but this post has already sucked up an hour of my morning languidity (not a real word?), they'll have to wait while do more important things. Like play Guitar Hero III.
I dropped (or am in the process of dropping - I just skipped today) my Art History class, so I finally have a little free time and can sleep in on M/W/F until 9. This has increased my quality of life by like 96%.
I really thought I would enjoy Art History; that it'd be a fun, blow-off class for my blow-off senior year. But no. Looking at the syllabus, it'd be more work than Anatomy. Besides that, I'm not really into spending 15 minutes of class doing "art news," which seems to me to be the college equivalent of the dreaded current events reports I had to do for a whole year in 9th grade Social Studies.
Plus, the professor is partially deaf, repeats everything you say twice, and acts like she's scared to death of all her students. Not how I think an art teacher should be.
So as soon as I hear back from an adviser, I'm out of there. I'm keeping the book, though. I'll probably take the class again when my boss's friend starts teaching it at my campus.
So... fiberwise.
I'm spinning! It's pretty much the coolest thing I've ever done in my entire life. My darling mother found the wonderful Miss Cindy in our city's little directory, living less than 10 minutes away, and we went over to her house before Christmas to see her sheep and alpacas.
Annnd we signed ourselves up for spinning lessons immediately. Two lessons later, and I've gotten pretty comfortable with both the drop spindle and the wheel. I think we'll be plying next lesson. Yarn pictures to come!
Weather has been rather freezing lately, so I've been pretty prolific in my knitting.
First, the rather disappointing Headline News.
I used Wool Ease, just because I had it on hand, but I think it was a mistake. With the huge needles the pattern calls for, it makes a really holey fabric that's kind of disgusting after knitting worsted weight socks on size 2 needles.
Next, a commissioned (yay!) space invaders beanie for my friend Josiah. Inspired, of course, by my amazing space invaders tea cozy.
This uses black Simply Soft, and - get this - GLOW IN THE DARK NYLON. I know. It blows my mind. I've been trying really hard to get a glowing picture of it, but I think I'm going to need a tripod and a really long exposure camera. It's not the softest, and it's splitty as hell, but HELLO. It glows in the freaking dark. Unfortunately, my fair isle is not quite up to par yet, and I didn't make it stretchy enough to fit its intended owner. So I'm knitting another one!
Next, a little something I call Roxy Hart, because it reminds me of the kind of cloche Renee Zellweger wore in Chicago.
This was basically me practicing granny squares (my first!), and when I found myself with an alarming amount of them, I slip stitched em together and picked up stitches around the top to make a hat!
I've got a few other projects to post later, but this post has already sucked up an hour of my morning languidity (not a real word?), they'll have to wait while do more important things. Like play Guitar Hero III.
12.02.2007
Smile Like You Mean It
Things that made me smile this week:
1) At work, suddenly hearing an adorable 3-year old's loud rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" coming from the bathroom. Apparently my boss told her that to make sure your hands are really clean, one must wash them for as long as it takes to sing Happy Birthday. Holy freaking crap, that's cute.
2) Watching the dog set off mouse traps with his tail. Hehehe.
Things that did not make me smile:
1) Finishing my book for government and realizing I had no recollection of what I had just read. Oops.
2) Wearing 3" heels. Fell and twisted my foot and got a lovely bruise on my rear.
3) Re-knitting Greenery and slowly having to come to terms with the fact that I was knitting a ranch house in Argentina, and not a hat. Is there no happy medium between tiny and gargantuan?
I have been doing my part in spreading the knitting gospel. I encouraged Gibby to become re-obsessed with yarn, and she has turned out a couple hats already this month, and got one of her friends started on a scarf. I also re-taught one of my fellow librarians the garter stitch, and hopefully piqued the interest of another, who promised to bring yarn and needles next week. Even the boy asked to try a stitch or two, but as I was knitting a ridiculously tight-gauged sock in black fuzzy alpaca at the time, I told him to wait until I had something easier for him to practice on. I really regret missing that golden opportunity, but hopefully he'll be interested again later.
Oh, almost neglected the most surprising of new converts. My darling father, in an effort to give one of his coworkers something to do with his hands besides noisily smush his water bottle, asked if I could teach him the basics so he could teach his friend in turn. Too good to be true.
Men are strange animals. Whenever you ask them if they'd like to learn to knit, they either make some comment about how it's girly (the stupid ones), or say something like "I have you to knit me anything I could want" (the smart ones [i.e. Darien]). But recent developments have shown that despite their protestations, the act of pulling yarn through loops to make a fabric is absolutely fascinating to them. And luckily for them, watching guys knit is absolutely fascinating (and, good God, man, sexy) to women. Better than a dog any day.
1) At work, suddenly hearing an adorable 3-year old's loud rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" coming from the bathroom. Apparently my boss told her that to make sure your hands are really clean, one must wash them for as long as it takes to sing Happy Birthday. Holy freaking crap, that's cute.
2) Watching the dog set off mouse traps with his tail. Hehehe.
Things that did not make me smile:
1) Finishing my book for government and realizing I had no recollection of what I had just read. Oops.
2) Wearing 3" heels. Fell and twisted my foot and got a lovely bruise on my rear.
3) Re-knitting Greenery and slowly having to come to terms with the fact that I was knitting a ranch house in Argentina, and not a hat. Is there no happy medium between tiny and gargantuan?
I have been doing my part in spreading the knitting gospel. I encouraged Gibby to become re-obsessed with yarn, and she has turned out a couple hats already this month, and got one of her friends started on a scarf. I also re-taught one of my fellow librarians the garter stitch, and hopefully piqued the interest of another, who promised to bring yarn and needles next week. Even the boy asked to try a stitch or two, but as I was knitting a ridiculously tight-gauged sock in black fuzzy alpaca at the time, I told him to wait until I had something easier for him to practice on. I really regret missing that golden opportunity, but hopefully he'll be interested again later.
Oh, almost neglected the most surprising of new converts. My darling father, in an effort to give one of his coworkers something to do with his hands besides noisily smush his water bottle, asked if I could teach him the basics so he could teach his friend in turn. Too good to be true.
Men are strange animals. Whenever you ask them if they'd like to learn to knit, they either make some comment about how it's girly (the stupid ones), or say something like "I have you to knit me anything I could want" (the smart ones [i.e. Darien]). But recent developments have shown that despite their protestations, the act of pulling yarn through loops to make a fabric is absolutely fascinating to them. And luckily for them, watching guys knit is absolutely fascinating (and, good God, man, sexy) to women. Better than a dog any day.
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