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.