This Is So Me

From the archives of xkcd. Substance in previous entry.

Celebrate Freedom--Read a Banned Book *Editx2

Well, it's that time again: The American Library Association's Banned Books Week. This year's event runs from September 27 through October 4. I try to keep both my personal life and my politics out of this blog for the most part, but come on--I work in book publishing. The idea of banning books, of limiting people's access to information and entertainment and beauty and discomfort and thought, chills me to the bone. To me, it says that the person banning the books doesn't trust readers to think critically about the things they read. And if that's the case, then in my humble opinion those book banners should spend their time teaching critical thinking skills rather than removing books from libraries and classrooms. Books are not dangerous. Books are glorious. I hope everyone takes the time to celebrate Banned Books Week by supporting freedom of speech and free access to the full range of available literature however they choose to do so.

I kicked off my celebrations on Sunday by going to the opening of the Lexington Children's Theatre's production of The Giver, adapted from the book (#14 on the list of most frequently challenged books from 1990-2000) by Lois Lowry, who is number 7 on the list of Most Frequently Challenged Authors of 2007. Lexingtonians should check out the show; it runs through this weekend.

I'm continuing my celebration by reading To Kill a Mockingbird (#41, 1990-2000), by Harper Lee. I can't imagine anyone wanting to ban this book--it's so moving, so heartwarming. It gives me such joy to read this book. (I've got a huge crush on Atticus, for one thing.) Anyway, I will continue to read dangerous literature such as this, and encourage any children I might have to read dangerous literature and think critically about it. Gems such as To Kill a Mockingbird should always be available, to anyone who might be interested.

Here's the really political bit:

I was appalled to discover yesterday that Sarah Palin tried to take steps to ban books from the public library in Wasilla, AK, when she was mayor. I double-checked, because my source wasn't terribly reliable, and it was confirmed by this Time Magazine article. The relevant paragraph is slightly more than halfway through the article; I've copied and pasted it here.

"Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. 'She asked the library how she could go about banning books,' he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. 'The librarian was aghast.' That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving 'full support' to the mayor."

Even if she was caving to pressure from her constituents, that's just not acceptable to me. I just... No. Seriously, now. No.

*EDIT: After some further checking, it looks like the issue has been somewhat exaggerated. This ABCNews story contains a few quotes from the librarian in question, and the conversation never progressed beyond "what if...." However, "Palin has acknowledged she twice raised the issue in 1996 of how books could be removed from the shelves." To me, that's still damning. Why would you inquire about how (twice!) unless you were thinking of following up with action?

*EDIT, again: It occurs to me that I was inclined to doubt my sources and double-check my facts because I was taught to think critically about what I read, not to just take something at face value because it's in print. Book banners, take note: if I had simply believed the first source I saw, I would have unfairly accused Palin of actually attempting to remove specific books from the library, and not bothered to see if the evidence backed it up. That would be wrong. This sort of skepticism and critical thinking is exactly what is damaged by book-banning.

Caturday!

I don't have much to say today, but here are some lovely cat photos.


This is a slightly difficult-to-discern Eve, who climbed up onto my keyboard one day when I wasn't paying enough attention to her. What you can't see is that she stepped on the keyboard, bringing up the QuickFind bar in Firefox, and--no lie--managed to type "666." Accidentally, I'm sure. No significance whatsoever.

Here is a very comfy George, who was somewhat annoyed that I interrupted her nap with a bright flashy light.

And here's everyone's favorite fuzzyman, the Blog Prince himself, Pippin.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Caturday Eve

I woke up this morning, thought about the projects I want to be working on and the ones I am working on, and then thought, "Crap! Tomorrow is Caturday, and I haven't blogged since last Caturday!" So here I am, blogging.

Everyone should follow this link to yesterday's Natalie Dee comic, unless they saw it already on Samara's solo blog. I think we can all relate to it.

I had a lovely time on Tuesday at SnB. There was good cyser and good company, and I left Jane's place with this:

A sleeve! A finished sleeve! One more to go and I can block and seam this sucker. Then I will officially be a Sweater Knitter, with a real live sweater to prove it.

I've had a hankering to crochet edging onto hankies again lately. I found my crochet thread and my handkerchief blanks this morning--but there's no sign of the case with my crochet hooks in it. I'm pretty sure it's in my house somewhere, but currently there's no proof of that. It seems extremely likely that I'll make a trip to Michael's this evening and get a new tiny crochet hook. I really need to do some unpacking and organizing this weekend.

Of course, I also have a Crazy Scheme in mind for this weekend. Okay, not that crazy, but still a scheme. Apparently I didn't blog about the time I turned a really ugly Easter basket into a yarn basket, but you can see the basket in question in this entry. That basket is currently in a closet, hiding from cats. What I want to do this weekend is make a lid for it. This plan involves a trip to Home Despot for thin plywood, a hinge and screws, and a handsaw. I'll trace the outline of the top of the basket on the plywood, cut it out with the handsaw, paint it red (if I can figure out what I did with my red paint) to match the basket, then attach it with the hinge. Voila! A lidded knitting basket I can safely keep near the sofa for easy TV knitting. At least, that's the plan.

Caturday: Summer Olympic Edition

"But Ann!" you're saying. "The summer Olympics ended weeks ago!"

"Not in this house, they didn't!" I answer you. "I think it has something to do with the time difference between here and Beijing."

There are currently three events underway.

First up is the Stare-athon.

Eve takes an early lead in this event, in part due to her creative use of a closet door in her routine. But this one's not over yet!

Next, we'll head over to the Competitive Eating ring.

This is a real blow for the Persian team, as their athlete, Pippin, is distracted by the media attention and loses focus. Bad luck, Persia.

And our final event is the High Jump.

It looked as though George would take the gold for her daring jump from the back of a chair (lower left) to the top of a door, but the judges were not lenient when it came to scoring--there were deductions for her shaky take-off and all the noise involved with her landing. It looks like the silver is the best she can hope for.

That wraps it up for today's coverage of the Summer Kittylympics. Tune in next week for a crowd favorite: Greco-Roman wrestling. The fur will be flying--literally--when these competitors get going!

Avast!

Ahoy, me hearties! Today be International Talk like a Swashbuckler Tide. I be celebratin' by wearin' me Jack Sparrow t-shirt an' me hand-knit gentleman o' fortune socks.

(Fer th' English-t'-Swashbuckler translator, go here.)

On Wensdee, I did somethin' I've been wantin' t' do since th' first time I sailed' t' Sue Ann's Bagels in Ashwaubenon. I made bagels! Here`s an action shot o' three stages o' bagel-hood: on th' port, formed an' risen bagels. In th' pot, boilin' bagels. An' on th' starboard, boiled an' topped bagels waitin' fer bakin'.


An' here we be havin' 12 lovely, finished bagels. They's nay th' best bagels I've e'er eaten, but they be th' best bagels I've e'er made.


Th' other tide I noticed that me socks had picked up some Pippin fur. Identical wee sprays o' fur be stuck t' me socks in th' exact same place on each sock. I felt like Hermes, so I had t' take a picture. Me wings be more visible-like if ye click t' enlarge.


An' I've been knittin' a sock.


That's all I've got fer now. Enjoy yer plunderin' today!

I Am So Smart! S-M-R-T!

I've been putting a lot of thought into Super Secret Knitting Project #2. I spent hours charting and recharting, I did a gauge swatch, I did math. I wound my yarn into balls, and I cast on. On the fourth round, I noticed that I seemed to be off--by about 30 stitches. I counted the stitches on my chart, then I counted the stitches on my needles.

Lo and behold, I had far too many stitches on my needles. I was supposed to have 65. I had 98.

Before I cast on, I took 65, added one for a k2tog at the join, and got 66. I divided 66 by 3 (three needles)... and got 33.

The highly intelligent among you may realize that 3 times 33 is not 66. It's 99.

Yard

I have a yard! I mowed it today. It's much smaller than the last yard I mowed--it was almost pleasant! Here's a picture that Aaron requested, showing the new grass that's grown since they left.

There's not a huge amount of new grass, but you can see the lighter patch in the middle--that part's new. I had left the sprinkler there basically since I moved in, so I had to move it in order to mow. When I picked it up, a shower of ants and ant eggs fell onto me. Apparently the underside of the sprinkler is the perfect anthill. It was pretty impressive how quickly those ants found a new place for their eggs--all the little white spots were gone in mere minutes.

I also noticed today that the little pear tree in the backyard wants to make fruit!

There are dozens of marble-size pearlets on the tree. I'm looking forward to full-grown pears. Maybe I'll get really ambitious and try to preserve some for the owners of the tree. Maybe.

It's been really windy here today. I'm glad I mowed when I did--especially because I glanced into the backyard sometime later and noticed that something was there that shouldn't be there.

Let's get a closer look, shall we?

The neighbor's dying tree decided it was time to let go. So now there's a whole bunch of tree in my backyard, and I get to deal with it.

Since the tree is clearly outside Samara and Aaron's property line, I'm going to see if the neighbor's landlord will remove it. However, when he fenced the yard next door, he fenced inside the tree, leaving it in a no-man's land of possible ownership dispute. If he won't take care of it, I'll probably see if the guy across the street will do it for $20 and a six-pack. Stupid responsibility--I never had to worry about trees falling down when I lived in an apartment!

Anyway, it'll be fine. No big deal, just an annoyance. When I was walking back to the house after taking those pictures I noticed how much happier my (former) window garden is to be living outside.

That's my basil on the right, and it's flopping over behind my newly thriving mint plant! Hooray--my mint is thriving!I've already cooked with some of the basil--very tasty. I'm planning to let the mint grow a bit more, then make some tasty, minty lemonade. I really hope it comes back next year. Actually, what I really hope is that the tendril that has hit the ground throws down some roots in that magical way plants have and then takes over the backyard--because that would amuse the hell out of me. Wouldn't a backyard full of mint be fantastic? It would smell so good.

In other news, my c-clamp and MDF arrangement worked very well for using my borrowed knitting machine. On my brilliant mother's advice I finally watched the instructional video today and discovered the secret to my difficulty. I fixed one tiny thing, and then I was off and running! All 600 yards or so of yarn has been knitted into a lovely stockinette rectangle. Phase one is complete! Hooray!

Knitting Machine=Big Pile of Suck, Actually

~In which I go to Home Despot for knitting supplies~

So I got the knitting machine set up this morning, and I had a little trouble with it; it didn't want to play nicely. But I had finally wrestled it under my control.

Or so I thought.

It chose that moment to let go of the tv stand I had it clamped to and take a dive.

Here we see the three puncture marks it made in my knee, and the cheery rainbow slipper the hooks got caught in. Phase One of this project has officially lost its charm.

Drastic measures were clearly the way to go.

So, I took myself to Home Despot. There I picked up 2 c-clamps and a 24" x 48" panel of MDF. The MDF has been clamped to the tv stand, and the knitting machine has been clamped to the MDF. With both clamps. I'll let you know how it goes from here.

Also, Eve felt left out--she wanted to get in on Theme Caturday.

No, I haven't become a Bud Light drinker--beer boxes just make good moving boxes.

Caturday

I think the cats are trying to tell me something.


Do you see a theme emerging?

Eve hates themes.

But Pippin and George definitely think it's time I did something about all the boxes in this place. Pippin is actually sitting in two boxes that are on top of the box that George is in.

Good thing the recycling goes out this week! I think I'll spend a little time breaking down and bundling boxes today...

I've also done some knitting this week.

This is a gauge swatch for a super-secret Christmas present. One that I will be designing. It's pretty exciting that I feel confident enough that, when I can't find a pattern that fits my vision, I can use my vision to create a pattern. I even created graph paper that matches my gauge so that, when I chart my motifs, they won't go all wonky when it comes time to knit them. Because I am that geeky.

I also got an urge last weekend to knit argyle socks. I was thwarted, though, because I couldn't find a free pattern that was knit flat and didn't involve duplicate stitch. I want to knit argyle socks right! So I resigned myself to a long and fitful pattern search. Then I went to ReBelle, which was having a birthday sale--and they were giving away free magazines with purchase. I didn't want to stand there and look through them all, so I grabbed one that looked... interesting.

It's like a helmet, see? It's got the futuristic silver ear thingies! How could I leave this in the store?

Well, I looked through this magazine the other day, and guess what I found! A traditional argyle sock pattern! It was fate. The socks will have to wait, though--I'm too excited about super-secret Christmas projects.

And my sweater? It languishes, unfinished, in my billboard bag. Oh, well. I'll finish it eventually.

Crazy Scheme: Cryptic Christmas Edition

[19. Steamed pork buns--a visit to a dim sum place brings my total to 43!]


But before I get all cryptic, a photo that illustrates the joy of living with cats.

Last weekend I picked up a free-standing closet thing--basically a frame made out of metal pipes with a cloth cover. I set it up, then took a shower, and when I came out, I saw this:

That crescent-shaped dark spot on the left is not a handle or a decorative element. It is a hole, freshly scratched by the evil cat (who is even now begging for love in a very adorable way). In disgust, I unzipped the "door" and rolled it up, and the cats now seem to be leaving it alone--but my clothes are falling victim to cat hair. Oh, well. If I had left it closed, they would have gotten in soon, anyway.

In Crazy Scheme news, I skipped SnB yesterday in favor of getting started on my Super-Secret Christmas present project. This project involves borrowing a sweater machine and using it for a non-sweater purpose, and thankfully Robyn had one she was happy to lend me.

Now, I am a visual learner. I benefit strongly from seeing someone do a thing and then copying what they did. So I was really happy that Robyn's sweater machine came with an instructional video. However, I was in the grips of a Crazy Scheme last night, and my thought process went something like this: "Ooh, I can't wait to get started! This is going to be so awesome. Hmm, here's the video. Oh! And here are all the parts! And a sheet of directions! I bet I can figure this out, no problem."

So after about 45 minutes of struggle, I ended up with a fully set up sweater machine, instructional video left unwatched.

Did I mention that I don't have an appropriate table for the sweater machine? I'm using a little TV stand on wheels. One that is not long enough to use both clamps to hold the sweater machine steady. But the urge to partake in the Crazy Scheme will not be ignored!

I got started and had a merry old time moving the carriage back and forth, until I realized one big drawback of this sweater machine: when things go wrong, you can't see it immediately.

For instance, I had no intention of dropping any stitches, but I had to get quite a bit past the first stitch to fall off the hook thing to see that there was trouble in River City. By the time I noticed, there were a number of stitches to fix.

Also, things seem to have a tendency, when they go wrong, to go very, very wrong.

What happened here? I have no idea.

By the end of the evening, though, I think I had gotten a pretty good handle on using this machine. I plan to set it up to make a wider cloth before I finish up the ball I made using my shiny new swift and my ballwinder. Then I can move on to Crazy Scheme Part II, which will involve a trip to the drugstore and some hardcore planning. There may be more photographic evidence of Things Gone Horribly and Amusingly Wrong before too long!

Caturday, and Knitting, and a Few Other Things

I really meant to post about knitting at least once between Caturday posts, but this week it didn't work so well.

Today, the two shall be combined! George and Eve are admiring my progress on Sleeve the First. I've got about an inch and a half to go before I shape the sleeve cap, and then I'll be done! With this sleeve. One more sleeve to go, obviously. But I'm approaching Sweaterdom, and that's pretty awesome.

Pippin wouldn't cooperate with the cats-and-knitting photo session, so here he is, all by his lonesome.

Sometimes he likes to hang out by the back door. It might be because he can see all the way to the front of the house from there--he can kind of keep an eye on things. Or at least keep an eye on a three-foot-wide strip of things, through the doorways. He is master of all he surveys!

I'm completely out of my old place, and it's nice to only be living in one house. Although I do have moments when I have to remind myself which house that it--it's easy to forget and drive to my old place out of habit! Today I'm planning to do some unpacking and organizing. My kitchen and bathroom are completely unpacked, but the other rooms still feature stacks of totes and a lot of disorder.

By the way, shopping for a tube TV in 2008 is really kind of depressing. You have to sort of skulk around to the less glamorous areas of the store, past the flashy displays of new technology to the small, hidden shelves of the old-fashioned and unfashionable. Everything is dusty and a little dim, and there's a definite sense that the store is ashamed of carrying such things, and the consumer should be embarrassed to be selecting one of these big, unwieldy boxes instead of one of the sleek, sexy boxes in front that scream "PLASMA" and "LCD."

Or maybe that's just me.

And I was given some literature this morning by a nice man named David and his son, Aiden.

Those JWs are crafty, man--I can never turn down a small child in his best clothes holding out a copy of The Watchtower. Oh, well. Now that they've reached me, maybe they'll leave me alone.

And on Monday, I'll be getting a massage as a reward for all of my hard work during the moving process. I can't begin to tell you how much I'm looking forward to that.