Texture Tuesday!

I'm going to try something new here. People post all kinds of photos on certain days of the week. Well, I love color and texture, and I need inspiration to post, so . . . Texture Tuesday! Make sure to click the photos to see the full-size versions. Today's entry is various shots of a rusty manhole cover near my apartment.

Hugh Jackman does Peter Allen

More Hugh Jackman! If you thought the last video was surprising coming from Wolverine, watch this one. Hugh Jackman does Peter Allen. Enjoy, Erin! :)

Unitarian Jihad

This article about the Unitarian Jihad is a couple years old, but thanks to a pointer from Gannet in the Ravelry chat, I got to be reminded of how amusing it was, and share it with all of you.

Handbags of Horror

Okay, I found this handbag/horror comparison ridiculously amusing. Perhaps it's because I own 1 purse that I use regularly, and even that is generally stuffed into a knitting bag.

Hugh Jackman Medley

I don't care about most of Hugh Jackman's movies, but if he opens his mouth to sing, I'm there. I particularly love his hosting stints on a couple of Tony Awards broadcasts. How can you resist him when he does stuff like this?

Good bit starts about 2 minutes in.

Reasons Why I Love Ravelry, #4

#4: Helpful people in the Ravelry chat!

The fabulous KnitSteph was talking about mitered squares in chat today, and I mentioned I'd always wanted to know how to make them. She told me they were easy, and pointed me towards this tutorial. Finally, mitered squares made sense to me! I always thought there was complicated knitting together of triangles or some such thing. Nope! The decreases in the middle make the mitered square. It's easy! Look:



Sorry for the photo quality; it was taken by my camera phone. The yarn? It's Colinette Jitterbug in the Popsicle colorway.

The answer? More bumper stickers!

In my previous post, I mentioned the reaction to just one bumper sticker on my car. Well, today I was back at church and decided the proper course of action was more bumper stickers. Tomorrow I will be adding 3 more pro GLBT rights/equal marriage rights stickers to my car. I think I'll go food shopping again, too. I shared the story with a number of folks after service, and they were amazed that it had happened. I wish I could say I was. I'm not in redneck country, but I do live in an area that skews toward rich Republican. That's okay. So far I've donated 6 bucks to Social Action that I wouldn't have otherwise, fired up people, gotten 2 blog entries and a good laugh, and gone all out on my car's bumper. Thanks, anonymous ignorant person!

Ignorance must be bliss

First, I need to tell you about my car. I'm a liberal, anti-war, pro equal rights, pro GLBT rights Unitarian Universalist driving a 12 year old Honda. It should not surprise you to learn that I have bumper stickers espousing my positions on my car. The most recent addition is a rainbow bumper sticker that says "Celebrate Diversity", purchased from the social action table at a church service one Sunday. So I'm walking back to my car today after doing some food shopping, and from a distance, I can see a yellow sticky note on the driver's side window. It never occurred to me that someone had hit my car, or anything like that. No, my first thought was "I wonder what they thought of my stickers." The note said, and I'm spelling this exactly as they did, "DIVERISTY IS PERVERSITY! - Michael Savage" Well, I hope they were watching for my reaction, because I laughed out loud. Far from being offended, I was amused by the incredible ignorance behind the statement. All I could think was "Cool. I needed a good laugh, and now I have something to blog about." Diversity isn't just a fact of life, it IS life. A word to the wise for the right-wing - just because it rhymes doesn't make it a good motto.

Cuteness

I was over at my friends' house tonight for dinner as I often am on Sundays, and was playing with their almost 2.5 year old, who I'll call Little Miss M. In the midst of a sort of stream of consciousness sentence, she says "I make peepee!" and this conversation ensues:

"Do you want to go make peepee on the potty?"
"No."
"Do you have a diaper?"
"No."
"Do you need your diaper changed?"
"Okay!"

So, off we go upstairs to change the diaper. We meet Little Miss M's mom on the stairs and she says, "Oh, I'll do that." and Miss M says "No." and points at me. Luckily I interpret this as a sign of love and trust. Generally, I prefer diamonds, but she's 2. Diaper changing works for me. Except she lies! It was a poopy diaper!

Later, Little Miss M has been put to bed, but we hear a noise on the baby monitor. Her mom turns it up, and we hear humming. What tune? The intro music from Star Wars.

No wonder I love this kid!

Career meme

Bunnysquirrel told me about this career related meme. Yes, it's a quiz, but it's a useful quiz. Here's how it works:

1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/.
2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" quiz.
4. Post the top [some number of] results:

I did many iterations - after the first batch of interest-related questions, after the second batch of interest-related questions and the skills questions, etc. Here's my top ten after I answered all the questions:

1. Economist: Fair Match
2. Corporate Trainer: Good Match
3. Website Designer: Fair Match
4. Exhibit Designer: Fair Match
5. Art Director: Good Match
6. Management Consultant: Good Match
7. Inventor: Good Match
8. Industrial Designer: Good Match
9. Set Designer: Fair Match
10. Communications Specialist: Good Match

The top 10 didn't include the jobs that are supposedly my best fits for both interest and skills. Those would be Comedian and Motivational Speaker. Hmmmm. Maybe I should be a comedic motivational speaker?

Remember

Today I keep remembering a piece of a quote from West Wing: "[T]hey ran into the fire to help get people out. Ran into the fire. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight. They're our students and our teachers and our parents and our friends. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels[.]"

Never forget.

Madeleine L'Engle, 1918-2007

When I was a teenager, I was geeky and awkward and shy. I was taller than most of the boys, and smart, and dressed in cords and plaid blouses with little ribbon ties - in the early 1980's. I read voraciously at home, and my social life was mostly fictional characters. Meg Murry and Vicky Austin were good friends to me at that time. Their creator, Madeleine L'Engle, died yesterday. If you had asked me back then who my favorite author was, I would have said Madeleine L'Engle without hesitation, even though I read dozens of books. Even into adulthood, I continued to read her, discovering her autobiographical books and her adult fiction. Her gentle inclusion of religion in her books and her writings about an afterlife, formed the beginnings of my first attempts at a personal theology.

I always meant to write her and tell her what she had meant to me during some rough patches in my life, but I never did, and now I'll never have the chance. I know what books I'll be rereading over the next few weeks.

Goodbye, Mrs. Franklin, and good luck on your next journey. Thank you.

Reasons Why I Love Ravelry, #3

#3: Mmmm, yarn! Ravelry feeds the need.

The Sheep Are Phoning It In

I discovered this link on the Idaho board on Ravelry. Funny, a good recycling effort, and loosely knitting related: what's not to love?

A quiz that worked!

So, those quizzes that are all over the net usually don't do a great job of analyzing you, but this one was spot on.

You are Merino Wool.You are very easygoing and sweet. People like to keep you close because you are so softhearted. You love to be comfortable and warm from your head to your toes. Take this quiz yourself!

And I *am* merino wool! The description matched, not to mention that I love merino.

Second Second Assistant Director

Himself is on his way home from seeing The Bourne Ultimatum and calls me.

"I think I've found a job in the movie industry I qualify for."
"Oh? What's that?"
"Second Second Assistant Director."

Of course, now I need to know what a Second Second Assistant Director does, so I Google it. A Second Second Assistant Director is "[a]n assistant to the second assistant director; responsible for (among other things) directing the movements of extras." That quoted definition comes from the IMDB Movie Terminology Glossary. Now, I loves me some IMDB for looking up various movies and TV shows and actors, but who knew they had a glossary?

Reasons Why I Love Ravelry, #2

#2: The people on Ravelry have a sense of humor.

I posted about my first sock in the Fearless Knitters group (quick ad: On Ravelry? Want to move beyond garter stitch scarves? Need some support to get over knitting fears? Join us!) and got a fabulous response:

You are knitting socks without having taken a class?

WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE THAT DO THIS?

You Fearless Knitters are freaking AMAZING!

So far I've cursed her, the yarn, the needles, DPNs in general, k1p1, the pattern, the sock itself, my digital camera (which stopped working again, so no yarn or WIP pictures) - everything except me

That is a post of A Knitter On The Edge! Luckily, I think you're A Knitter On The Edge of getting it.

Yes - when you wrestle socks down into a subservient position? You curse the pattern, the person who talked you into finally knitting socks (CURSE THEM!) Question your sock yarn choice . . . DPNs? Who originally made this horrific knitting choice? Times four or five needles? (Or times Two Circs if you 'know people'). Mmmm. You haven't mentioned 'turning the heel'. Is everything Okay?

I dunno if you're knitting top down or tow up, but regardless. CURSE SOCKS TO THEIR CORE!

Alls I can say is? When you wrestle a sock down . . . it's a knitting high. The construction of a sock is intoxicating.

Shakes head to clear . . . oh, wait. I'm talking about A SOCK!

How you people are knitting socks without Mentors?

I'm in awe of all y'all Fearless Knitters.

How do you not love that?!

Am I in the right place?

I've been messing around with the colors of the blog, and will probably continue to do so, so don't worry if the place looks different - it probably is. :)

Sock!!!

I cast on Wednesday night for my very first ever sock! It's in a really pretty purple/green colorway of Anne, from Schaefer Yarns, and it's a pattern from Knitting Pure & Simple. My friend Christina talked me into it. So far I've cursed at her, the yarn, and the needles, and decided that k1p1 is the devil, and I have an ugly ladder, but I'm keeping on.

Reasons Why I Love Ravelry, #1

#1: The people that run Ravelry have a sense of humor.

As proof, see these three screenshots:


This is Casey's avatar and title. As you might have guessed, Casey is the coder half of the husband and wife team behind Ravelry.


Your search didn't turn anything up? Add some ish.


The new message indicator got messed up temporarily, and showed people as having a new message when they didn't. Since it couldn't be fixed until the nightly update, Casey modified the alert temporarily.

A web site created, coded, and run by real people with a passion for the topic is a beautiful thing.

Amusing ringtone

I was at the diner today, and a woman's cell phone rang. Her ringtone was the Carrie Underwood song "Before He Cheats". Makes me wonder who was at the other end. :)

A beginning

I think it's time to blog again. It was ridiculously easy to set up a Blogger blog. Really, it took like 5 minutes. Now that I'm obsessed with Ravelry, where everyone seems to have a blog linked in their profile, I feel like I'm missing out by not blogging.

So, about me. I'm 38, gleefully married, a knitter, and currently a lady of leisure. That's my way of saying unemployed, except when you say "lady of leisure" people don't look sad for you; they just look jealous.

I don't know what I'll be writing about. Probably some knitting, some random political commentary (I'm a Democrat), some church stuff (I'm Unitarian Universalist, and some reality tv commentary, among other topics.

More to follow when it's not the middle of the night.