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links for 2009-10-20

October 20th, 2009

Speed Knitting

October 10th, 2009

Hi there. I know: it’s been forever since I blogged. Please insert usual apologies and excuses about life and business here.

I’m working on the Coraline sweater, and decided to see how long it’s been taking other people to make their own versions. It’s been almost three weeks since I started, and I’m over halfway done — or I should be, because four skeins should be more than enough yardage, and I’m well into the third skein. If I’m not over halfway done, then I’m in trouble.

I’d be farther along, except that I took one day last weekend to make a fingerless glove. Also, miles of stocking stitch without even shaping to anticipate every few rows tends to make my brain dribble out my ears.

However:

There are people on Ravelry — on the first page of the projects tab — who have finished in two weeks or less. A lot of people seem to be taking four to five weeks, which is about what I’m anticipating, but there was one person who, I swear, finished in eleven days. Eleven days.

Liesl only took me a week, but that was using a slim bulky yarn (i.e., it called itself bulky, but really was dysmorphic and was probably only a heavy worsted) on size 11 needles, and had simple lace to keep things interesting. Also, I had jetlag that week, so I was up for all kinds of crazy hours.

How can a person seriously finish a whole sweater in DK weight on size 4 needles in eleven days, if they have any other interests at all (e.g., eating, work, interacting with other living creatures) and are not currently suffering from insomnia?

links for 2009-03-15

March 15th, 2009
  • Cool and quirky movie about morris dancers! You can watch the preview at http://morrismovie.com/, and then — if you like — sign the petition urging that the film be distributed to theaters. (The petition is set up assuming you live in the UK, but you can just leave the "region" list blank if you don't live there.)

links for 2009-03-07

March 7th, 2009
  • Oh. Good. Lord. Fascinatingly horrible examples of dreadful things apparently intended for consumption, mostly extremely not vegan. Pretty much all should kill you dead at 20 paces.

    Is it really all that wrong that I kind of want to veganize some of them, just for the challenge? C'mon, a vegan pizza cone would sound really comforting after a stressful day. . . .

You Need Another Dog

March 6th, 2009

Boone Needs a Forever Home

Seriously: how could you not want to take this guy home? He’s young, outgoing, good-looking, and is a total sweetheart. Oh, and he’s single, and looking for love.

His Petfinder page is here. I met him this afternoon when I picked up Moliere after his haircut.* Most of the time I was scratching his ears and head, he was trying his best to lick my hands without twisting his head out of my reach.

Two dogs is my limit — if nothing else, my HOA agreement specifies no more than two, and limits them to 35 lb or less — but if you or someone you know is in need of a dog and has the space for a dog who’ll maybe be 60 to 70 lb when he hits his full growth, check out Boone. The groomer said he’ll be at the Petsmart on Ponce de Leon on Sunday, if you want to meet him.

He’s a lovely, sweet young dog, and he deserves a good home.

***

*One of the things I like about my groomer, or rather Moliere’s groomer, is that he does stuff like this to help out rescues a lot.

links for 2009-03-04

March 4th, 2009

General Suckitude

March 2nd, 2009

All in all, today was not my favorite day. It could have been much worse, I’ll admit — my car might’ve slid on the ice and smashed into something or someone, or Nigel could’ve had a medical problem — but it was still fairly sucky. The various bad things of today included, but were not limited to, the following:

  • For the third day in a row, both dogs had accidents overnight, of both sorts. This, despite their having been outside many, many times the evening before. I feel as if I spend my life mopping floors and laundering pee pads, towels, and throw rugs.
  • Immediately upon returning from our morning airing, Moliere decided that would be a good time to crap on the floor.
  • While scraping the snow and ice off my windshield, I broke my passcard for work. Yes, I should’ve used an ice scraper, but I lost mine when I moved from Illinois, and haven’t felt like buying and keeping track of another one when I only need it once a year, if that.
  • Sid the Beetle’s battery light came on while I was driving to work, necessitating an unplanned trip to the dealer’s, time lost from work when I really can’t spare any time, and over $1200 in repairs. (It was the alternator that had conked out.)
  • Nigel’s kidney situation continues to deteriorate (though at least while I was gone he actually managed to hit the pee pads — and also the kitchen tiles, but at least they’re nonabsorbent). He wants to go outside every half hour to 45 minutes. From the number of times we go up and down the stairs each day, I should have amazing, phenomenal, slender, Swedish-like thighs, but unfortunately that’s another thing that doesn’t seem to be working the way it should.
  • Indie bookseller Wordsmiths Books closed today. It’s always sad when a local shop closes down; you lose a little more of what makes neighborhoods unique, and takes you one step closer to suburban/urban megamalls with identical architecture and absolutely the same bloody stores everywhere.
  • Though they’re not closing (thankfully!), Cosmo’s is moving to Marietta at the end of the month, which is terra incognita as far as I’m concerned. Guess I’ll just have to order from the web site rather than dropping by occasionally, and that makes me rather sad.
  • There is now a big white box on Errol the Mac’s screen, obscuring everything underneath it, and it refuses to go away despite everything I do. Probably just a performance lag — Errol’s getting old and slow — but it’s bloody irritating, and makes it hard to type without errors.
  • On the positive side, no one has died; Nigel’s in good spirits and Moliere remains sweet but, well, slow; no damage has been done except to my credit cards; and at least the woman at the car dealership said she liked the sock I’m working on:

    Ankh-Morpork Brassicas Sock

    It’s a crappy shot, but it’ll have to do for now. I’m off to watch old “Mary Tyler Moore” episodes on Hulu to cheer myself up.

    links for 2009-02-27

    February 27th, 2009

    links for 2009-02-23

    February 23rd, 2009

    People Are Just Weird

    February 20th, 2009

    I realize that I am, statistically, an outlier in many respects. I’m vegan, obviously; I’m rather leftist and living in the not-really-leftist-at-all South; I’m a single person in a world awash with couples; I drive a fuel-efficient diesel subcompact in a world of gasoline-driven SUVs; I am a recycling nazi in what is still a largely throwaway society. I tend to think of myself as normal, but when pressed I have to admit that I am not really representative of the views, positions, or attitudes of most of my species-mates.

    Sometimes, though, it’s hard not to gawp at how, um, different some people’s opinions are. (Aren’t you proud of me for not swearing in that sentence? If not, read on.)

    Case in point: the books talked about in this article (via the always-engaging Crooked House). Disclaimer: I have not read the actual books in question. This post is based on the article and information on the author’s Web site.

    Urgh. Pro-hunting propaganda for children (to counteract the “literally dozens of anti-hunting themed children’s books on the market today”; I’m not really up on kids’ lit, but “literally dozens,” even if accurate, doesn’t sound like a whole bunch o’ books to me in the whole marketplace.) One hopes, though, that the choice of victims (one of the Three Bears? Bambi’s dad?) would make kids think beyond just the words on the page and remember that there’s another side to the story.

    According to the article, “Jacobs said people who fear guns — and by extension do not approve of hunting — are missing some information. ” Um, yeah — because that’s why I disapprove of hunting: I’m a big weenie who’s too ignorant to know not to be afraid of guns. It’s not the killing and maiming in the name of fun, or even “hunting with a purpose” (apparently, that would be killing one of the Bears for fur and ursine sausages), that I find disturbing; it’s the fact that guns are scaaaary.

    Please excuse me for a moment. I was rolling my eyes, and I think I pulled an eye muscle. Ouch.

    The Web site selling the books (link is in the article) is also scary — probably because all the cartoon guns on the book covers are unnerving me; that must be it. “Many liberal school teachers in this country are against hunting and can have a persuasive effect on youth. . . . [The books portray] realistic hunting and fishing adventures in a positive manner. These stories will have a beneficial effect on children, and they are a way to reach kids, that have never been introduced to the hunting sports.” Um, yeah. (My editorial side would like to point out the lovely unnecessary comma there in the last sentence, and the way the text refers to kids “that” rather than kids “who,” as one might say if they were people or something. Sorry. Using “that” in reference to thinking beings of whatever age just gets up my nose.)

    What’s just about as alarming is the reading-level estimate of “approximate 2nd-3rd grade reading level. Recommended reading ages start at 3-4 years old (if you are willing to read to your child) to 12-13 years of age.” Okay, firstly if you are willing? As far as I’m concerned, if you have a kid and don’t read to him or her in some form or fashion practically from birth, or at least as soon as you’ve recovered from the birth and have gotten enough sleep to be able to focus on the page (which I do understand can take a considerable time), and you yourself are not illiterate, then we need to have a talk.

    I say that, of course, in my august authority as Someone Who Does Not Have Kids Herself, although I am definitely Someone Who Reads to Her Dogs Quite Regularly and Is Blithely Ignored by Both of Them. What I know, in a hands-on sense, of actual parenting would not fill a thimble. However, I do believe that having kids entails the responsibility to read to them as part of the job, the same as feeding them and clothing them. It’s an important job, and worth doing properly. “Willing” shouldn’t enter into it.

    Granted, that statement says something more about the books’ intended audience than about the books themselves — the books apparently grew out of the author’s story-telling tradition with his daughter, so at least he read to her — but that phrase just incensed me.

    Secondly, a 12- to 13-year-old actually reading something written at a 2nd- to 3rd-grade reading level? Way to aim high, dudes; just don’t try doing a book report on something you got out of the kiddie section of the library, or your “liberal school teacher” will rake your lazy butt over the coals. Is our public educational system really such a mess that kids in — what, that’s junior high school? 7th, or 8th grade? I’m too old to remember these things — would actuallly be entertained by reading stuff written for kids in early to middle elementary school? (Again, that’s addressing the probable intended audience, not the books themselves, and in today’s economy I can’t really blame indie entrepreneurs for trying to maximize their appeal in order to survive. It just seems rather unrealistic, and a sad comment on expectations in our society. Maybe it’s just me, though.)

    People are, indeed, very strange. In a Venn diagram of “normality,” my perceptions (i.e., causing pain and death for fun = bad; reading at at least your grade level = good) may not overlap at all with other people’s notions. Probably it’s good to be reminded of that every so often, and to remember those wise and calming words attributed to Voltaire.

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