"Capitalism is the Predatory Stage of Human Evolution"

Website Wednesday

Miss M. is sleeping the night now and seems pretty housebroken. How's that for 4 days? And, she has quite a yowl for such a little puppy.

I read that our new Gov in NJ is down 9% in popularity (when the poll question was about his proposed budget cuts) in just two months. Now since he only won with less than 6% do you think if he had mentioned these budget cuts during the campaign the outcome of the election might have been different?

Not that we don't need some real changes in NJ (500+ municipalities? Talk about mini fiefdoms) but you make your most lasting changes when you work with people, not brand them as the enemy. Did we ever have a federal prosecutor as Gov in NJ before? Not a good fit.

Three sites today:

http://www.zefrank.com/youngmenowme/

It's pictures of people as Young Me and Now Me. With some you can see the resemblance; with others you say: No way! Both photos are supposed to be with the same expression, background, clothes, etc.

Click on "How to submit your pictures" for an easy way to submit your photos if you're interested.

And here's a mahjong game for you here:

http://www.freemahjong.org/

OK, for work if you turn off the sound. I like it because it's not an instant win. In fact, it's usually a loss. You can use the Find Moves feature but you still lose.

The tiles look authentic. No fish or dog tiles here which makes it more challenging since I didn't see at least 5 moves because the screen flashed my defeat with "No More Moves."

And finally, a site which doesn't need me to tout it:

http://www.life.com

This is the website for Life magazine (are they still in business?) known for great photos.

It's an interesting site to cruise but two items are really neat:

1. Scroll down to Photo Fun and click "Real or Fake?" Click on each picture to enlarge it and then vote if it's real or not. You'll get an instant answer and the % who guessed correctly.
2. Click on "Would you rather see?" You get two choices of pictures. Click the one you want and see the picture and the % of people who chose as you did.

There's a lot of pictures on this site; a lot of eye candy and a lot of real news.

Enjoy the sites.

"Capitalism is the Predatory Stage of Human Evolution"

Movie Monday or Not?

What? You say: Where is the director/screenwriter/editor review of Twilight which you promised?

Well, what do you think of this as an excuse:



or this:









This adorable pup is 7 weeks old and arrived last Friday. She will one day be a service dog but for a year she will be lazing her days with us (and apparently doing a good deal of praying if that picture is any indication.

For this blog, I'm calling her Miss M (not a singer like Bette Midler, but very divine.)

Her real training begins when she leaves us in a year (there won't be a dry eye in the place) but we're learning some things we have to do even now. One thing is that her toys can't be objects from real life, like a telephone. So she has a gingerbread man doll. When did you ever come across those guys walking down the street? Unless you're a hungry fox.

Also, you can't use the word "out" for potty time. Once again, that word is ubiquitous so we have to ask "Park time?" Oh, that is going to be a real memory challenge.

I think 7 weeks is too early to be weaned from mom but then dog is not my species, so what do I know?The first couple of nights were without sleep for everyone and the times in the cage (boy, that's a real nice cage) were pooh and pee fests. As the boy said: The gingerbread man had real issues. That is, gingerbread man, the fleece mat, the whole cage and Miss M. had to be bathed - many times.

The girl, who has primary responsibility for Miss M. (the boy's turn is with the next one) has been a real trouper. Coat and shoes ready for midnight and later Park times; exhausted but content and caring.

This is going to be a developing story and I think I'll blog about it occasionally - look at the popularity of TBogg's beagles.

I know I find it interesting as to how service dogs get initially trained and now I'm in on the ground floor. I hope you will interested too.

Now, I ask you: How can I sully those adorable pictures with a movie review?

I'll just leave you to savor them and I promise my review will come next Monday. I know you're saying: Liar! Liar! Pants on fire! I guess I deserve it. But isn't that a cute puppy?

"Capitalism is the Predatory Stage of Human Evolution"

Knitting Friday

This is the pattern you must try:
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEss10/PATTsummit.php

and here is a picture of this Summit shawl on practice yarn:
This sample is not blocked.

In fact, the sample was coming out so well that I stopped the sample and started on the "real" shawl with US 5 needles and Knit Picks Palette (fingering) in a royal blue, a color similar to the Knitty shawl.

I have to tell you that these instructions are so well-written. If you follow them religiously, I don't think you will make a mistake. But, if you make a mistake, it seems you can fix it more easily than regular shawl knitting since you seem to be knitting in separate modules which are joined as you go along.

If you look at the Knitty Summit shawl, you can see the horizontal threads which you achieve by dropping stitches at intervals. Just a tip: if you have to rip out a section and you have already dropped the stitch (you'll understand this once you start the pattern), just use a crochet hook to work the dropped stitch back up to the needle. Then rip out to your mistake, rework the section and drop the stitch again.

Be sure to use a row marker for angst-free work. The pattern, once you get started, is two rows (one K, one P) of a "pattern" - either dropping a stitch or YO and about 4 rounds in stockinette; except for the last column in each row. If forget which row you are on but you remember that every dropped stitch produces 9 horizontal threads (so if you drop a stitch and get only 7 threads you know you didn't knit enough stockinette rows) you can pretty easily find your place.

And finally, learn how to knit backwards for this project. It's a great plus. Here's a good site for learning:

http://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath/index.php/Yarnpath/knitting_backwards/

http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/secure-html/onlineec/instructionalArticle.asp?iaid=15

Each site has slightly different instructions. Here's how I knitted backwards.

1. You're looking at your work on the knit side with the left needle on the left and the right needle on the right (or their tips if you use circs) and the working yarn coming from the back of the right needle.
2. Take your left needle and put it left to right in the back loop of the first stitch on the right needle.
3. So now you have crossed needles - the right needle on top facing left ( \ ) and the left needle on the bottom is facing right (/ ). And, the first stitch "on" both needles.
4. With your right hand, take your working yarn behind the left needle, up between X of the two needles and around the left needle only. The working yarn will trail off to the right.
5. So facing the knit side of your work, you are looking at crossed needles with the original first stitch in the front and the yarn you just worked around the left needle in the back.
6. Now you are ready to make your backward knit stitch.
7. With your left needle as the guiding needle, take the yarn you just wrapped around the left needle through the middle of that original first stitch and onto the left needle as a regular stitch.
8. Now you should be looking at the crossed needles (facing the same way but the left needle may be on top now), with a knitted backward stitch as the first stitch on the left needle and the original first stitch as the first stitch on the right needle.
9. Since you have made your first knitted backward stitch and it's on the left needle, you don't need that original first stitch so just slip it up and off the tip of the right needle.
10. Keep repeating this for as many stitches as listed.

In the beginning at least, I found it helpful to say: In knitting backwards, the left needle does the work.

I would suggest purling regularly the first time you purl the just cast-on stitches. (Like Knit 12, CO 5, T. Purl back.) I found them difficult to manage in knitting backwards over them the first time. Of course, if I had better needles.........

And finally, here is a second picture of my recent spate of top down knitted pullovers and tops:

I made this cardi to check out patterns. Those are rows of seed stitch on the yoke and hem. Once I decided I liked that look, I made one in gray cotton for the summer. (Picture next week.)

And now, I must leave because the service dog arrives today! I will have pictures of a dog on my blog! Happy days!

Happy knitting.

"Capitalism is the Predatory Stage of Human Evolution"

Website Wednesday

I guess it's like going to a really good restaurant and eating something that's a "wow." and I'm feeling that way about a new shawl pattern from Knitty (more on this on Knitting Friday.) This is a pattern which is a "wow" for me so I'm trying to find as much spare time as possible to work on it. So, I'm typing very, very fast today.

The website for Wednesday is:

http://www.skepdic.com/

It says of itself:

The Skeptic's Dictionary is a website and a book:
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0471272426/roberttoddcarrolA/)

Each features definitions, arguments, and essays on topics ranging from acupuncture to zombies, and provides a lively, commonsense trove of detailed information on things supernatural, paranormal, and pseudoscientific....The Web site was created in 1994 - thanks to the Davis Community Network - and is still evolving. The book was published in 2003 by John Wiley & Sons, thanks in large part to literary agent Ted Weinstein and former Wiley editor Jeff Golick.

I know I say this a lot, but this is really a neat site. No pictures this time; just verbal thinking.

The site is skeptical of things, wants you to be skeptical of things, and then lays out a very good case as to why a healthy dose of skepticism is a good thing to have.

This is not a Now children, we can have different points of view and still get along site. This is a Hey you, what that guy/gal is saying is full of shit and I'll tell you why sort of site.

For example, right off the bat in the Apollo moon landing hoax entry, they say: The Apollo Moon landing hoax is a myth perpetrated by many people and organizations, including Bill Kaysing and the Fox TV network. Kaysing and Fox TV are hyperlinked.

So if you're a "birther" or a "tea-bagger" this is not the place for you to stop.

But if you like to think, if you like to learn, if you like to use your brain, you can start scrolling through this page:

http://www.skepdic.com/contents.html#D

It's the table of contents and it's chocked full of good stuff.

Did I mention that they have a "What's New" section? So don't forget to bookmark it for return visits.

And now, I return to my knitting.

Happy learning.

Health Reform Law - The First Step

From today’s Crooks and Liars (http://crooksandliars.com/) here are some of the provisions of the health care reform bill passed yesterday:
1. Adult children may remain as dependents on their parents’ policy until their 27th birthday
2. Children under age 19 may not be excluded for pre-existing conditions
3. No more lifetime or annual caps on coverage
4. Free preventative care for all
5. Adults with pre-existing conditions may buy into a national high-risk pool until the exchanges come online. While these will not be cheap, they’re still better than total exclusion and get some benefit from a wider pool of insureds.
6. Small businesses will be entitled to a tax credit for 2009 and 2010, which could be as much as 50% of what they pay for employees’ health insurance.
7. The “donut hole” closes for Medicare patients, making prescription medications more affordable for seniors.
8. Requirement that all insurers must post their balance sheets on the Internet and fully disclose administrative costs, executive compensation packages, and benefit payments.
9. Authorizes early funding of community health centers in all 50 states (Bernie Sanders’ amendment). Community health centers provide primary, dental and vision services to people in the community, based on a sliding scale for payment according to ability to pay.
10. AND no more rescissions. Effective immediately, you can't lose your insurance because you get sick.

It’s not perfect (but what is?) and I heard it’s chocked full of amendments which were added to sweetened the deal for congress people to vote “Yes.” We shall see.

A side note which just shows the anger and stupidity in many people today: We still have an Obama sticker on our car and yesterday morning we had just gotten on the Garden State Parkway in NJ. The traffic was moderately heavy, we were in the right lane, had entered without cutting anyone off, driving in a way which would make a driving instructor proud (important to know considering what happened.) I turned to my husband (the driver) and said: Be careful, the health care vote is today. I’m sure he was thinking: Yeah, right. Crazy lady. And with that, a green SUV passes us on the left, honks his horn and gives us the finger. Oh, if only we could be vindicated so quickly all the time!

I had sort of expected something since before the election our Obama sticker got a lot of negative finger waving.

I do think the best thing I read though was the explanation from our Congressman Scott Garrett, Mr. Lock-Step Republican, for why he was voting “No.” You see, he explained, the bill was unconstitutional! What a dipshit excuse! Though I, even looking for the pony under the manure, reasoned that perhaps he had gotten so many “Vote for this bill” phone calls and e-mails (Hubby tried calling but only got through once because his mailbox was always full as they got closer to the voting.) that he felt he had to give some sort of quasi-sane excuse. Not that I believe a word of it.

I guess you may have noticed I didn’t even mention Movie Monday yet and, folks, I’m not going to. You see, I haven’t seen a good or bad movie in the past week worth reviewing. I am going to revisit Twilight as I promised from the director/screenwriter/editor POV; but not today.

Yesterday’s vote may have been historic or maybe not because the vultures are at the door and they are royally pissed with this loss. (And, I’m not even factoring in that they know a mixed race man got the first significant health care reform through in over 40 years!!!) So I’m not going to savor in this victory (???); I’m going to think about it awhile though.

But I’ll leave you with this little story:

On Reporter’s Roundtable (NJ reporters talking about NJ news; every Friday on PBS at 7 pm) they showed a clip of our present NJ Gov, Chris Christie, talking about being a “real” New Jerseyan (so am I, Chris) and returning NJ to the state he remembers from his youth.

Whoa now, Chris. I hope you don’t mean this as this sort of statement is often used: to return the world to the time before we had those pesky problems like minorities living by us and working with us.

Not even going there, I checked Christie’s age. He was born in 1962 which makes his cognizant childhood years in the late 1960's and into the 1970's.

He wants to return to that! Drugs, bad clothes style, riots, overt prejudice against “those people” like gays - the list is long.

I just don’t get Republicans. Why can’t they work together to make the world a better place for all of us? Oh wait, I’m walking into Aragon’s coronation speech again. Silly me.

See you next Monday. Or Wednesday, if you want a neat website to visit.

"Capitalism is the Predatory Stage of Human Evolution"

Alfred P. Doblin, a columnist in The Bergen Record (yes, even though they wish to be slickly known as The Record, they are incorporated as The Bergen Record) ends his column today on NJ's future with: We don't need to tax; we need to build.

WTF? Those two ideas are not antithetical. You can tax and build. You can build when you use the money wisely you get from those who can be taxed, the rich.

I am so tired to witty, TV bite phrases. Pithy does not put "bread on the table" nor solve problems.

And since I'm on a tear this a.m., I looked at two pictures from the scrolling picturama (I think I made that word up) on the left side of The Record website today.

Picture 1: 200 protest at Steve Rothman's office against health care reform. It's a sea of gray and white.

Picture 2: Union protesters march against NJ budget cuts. OK, we only see about five faces but they are all "minority."

Talk about a disconnect. Unfortunately, I don't know if the good guys are going to win this one. Let's not forget: Money talks, bullshit walks.

Now, that's a pithy saying.

Knitting Friday

Oh, this is excitement time! The service dog will arrive next Friday. She is a 9 week old golden lab and she will stay for a year and a half before she goes off to be trained and eventually be “of service.”

The kids are very excited. The house will need a thorough “pick up.” You can’t drop stuff on the floor without an immediate pick-up from now on unless you want to spend a lot of time at the vet for x-rays.

Caring for a service dog warms the cockles of my liberal progressive heart. Dogs are a part of the meme of the US; dogs are a very big part of our selfish meme: Have you priced doggy vet bills lately? But dogs are part of human psyche going back to the first feral puppy who charmed a caveman’s kid so he/she asked: Daddy, can I keep it? What better way for an interaction of species than the care of future service dogs?

And I promise, pictures will follow.

By now, most of you have probably realized as I ramble on that I have nada for Knitting Friday. Before I give you an “I.O.U.” and a promise to be better next week, here are a few random knitting items:

Item 1: I am finishing up my second top-down sleeveless pullover for my lesson at our Needlework Group. This one is in winter wool and I’ll demonstrate it as a vest.

Item 2: I’ve started my third T-D pullover for the class. I’m completely changing the pattern in this one. I’ll have a ribbed neck and long sleeves so it won’t be a straight knit run from the top to the bottom hem since I’ll have to pick up for the sleeves.

Item 3: I just have one sleeve left to do on my cotton gray cardi/shrug. I hate the yarn. Not only is it splitty, it’s slippery and it’s heavy. It’s Luxor D.K and I would recommend only using long double-pointed needles on the sleeves unless you want to do a lot of cursing - and ripping out.

Item 4: A knitting tip: At the end of Item 1, I was just about to start the hem when I noticed a very loose section of stockinette stitch about 4 rows back. There was no missed stitch at the area, just loose knitting apparently. Do I rip back? Nah. So I unraveled the offending stitch back to the problem and pulled it back up with a crochet hook. I still had the loose area. Crap! The solution: Unravel at least three stitches and then work then back up, distributing the looseness among the three stitches. It works.

That's it for today. Oh, did I mention this is a traveling day, the first in a long time?

Happy Knitting.

"Capitalism is the Predatory Stage of Human Evolution"

Website Wednesday

I can't tell you much about this pictorial website:

http://www.etoday.ru/2010/03/ozhivshie-predmeti-terri-borde.php

I think the language may be Russian but pictures speak all languages. What's not to love about the current first picture? A metal frame of a a horse carrying a box of Trojans and....... Well, just take a look.

A banana, an egg, a candle, such simple objects but how they are used here. Take a look. Get a laugh, or smile. But be warned, some of them are not that simple to decipher - at least to me.

Here's another website:

http://www.coverbrowser.com/

I'm being pretty lazy today since I'm giving two choices of eye candy.

However, I do have an "About" with Cover Browser, which I can read!

Created in 2006, Cover Browser displays galleries of comic book (and book, pulp, games, DVD or magazine) covers for comic book fans like myself to explore & enjoy (there's also links to buy comics). At the moment, there are 455,613 searchable covers from 2,923 different series available. Most of the covers and associated data have been assembled using the nice Yahoo Image API, eBay, the Google Web Search API, the Amazon API, the Yahoo Term Extraction API, different homemade crawlers, and manual sorting. I'm also working with collections you send in or homemade scans.

This site really looks like a labor of love. It’s just a collection of book and magazine covers. I should really eliminate the “just” because it is a fascinating collection of covers.

I clicked on Girl’s Love Stories. Did girls read this stuff? I know, I’m judging a book/magazine by its cover, like a movie by its trailer. But, I’ll ask again: did girls really read this stuff? “Working in a bridal shop, I dreamed of one day becoming Kirby’s bride.” or “It was only a game he was playing. He doesn’t love me. He never did.” And everyone is sooooo beautiful - and white. And they complain about Twilight!

There are current titles, like Harry Potter, but so many are a trip down memory lane, though it’s your grandparent’s (great-grandparents?, great-great grandparents?) lane. But it is fun to click “Pocket Books” for a look at really old (and really valuable) paperbacks

Or click Popular Library and see possibly the only black man - a very young Bill Cosby from an I Spy book. (Obviously, the segregation of the times carried into everything.)

OK, enough of my talking. You have two choices: witty, imaginative pictures or an exploration of popular culture from another age. Both sites are worth return visits.

When Did Health Care Become A Privilege?

Thoughts on Tuesday

In a couple of hours, the NJ governor is going to give a budget address and he is proposing dire things for any type of worker he can harm (state, municipal, etc.) so he can eliminate the state deficit. You know how I feel about going after the working stiffs and not the rich cats but this post is not a rant about that.

Apparently, the one thing we know pretty much for sure with this speech is that the state will be eliminating $800 million in aid to schools. That's going to have a ripple effect and at the end of the day I'm sure art, music, afternoon programs - all types of stuff which give the soul to life - will be eliminated as will be their teachers.

But that's not even my point.

Since this announcement, I've been following the comments to news articles on this subject. Wow! Talk about some very angry puppies. Obviously, hatred of teachers' pay and perks has been simmering sub rosa for a long time.

Now, I have always been dismayed when teachers' contracts are negotiated for large pay increases, especially during bad economic times (truth be told, even during good economic times.) But I don't blame union greed as much as I blame B. of E. culpability. Boards of Education are so many times the first step for a lot of local politicians. Most of them have kids in the school system so they go along with the negotiations. I guess I never heard of a B. of E. drawing a line in sand with contract negotiations in NJ.

However, even that's not my point. Here it is: it's the anger in these comments. These commenters are royally pissed. After all, as they tell us, they learned with 50 kids in a class. They don't have pensions like teachers . They don't have job security. The litany of woes is endless.

It spooks me that there is so much anger out there just waiting for "pay back" policies which won't solve anything except give temporary succor to tremendously negative feelings.

I didn't hear it from Obama; I'm not hearing it from Christie. One is "lay-backing" his way through; the other is bullying his way through.

Neither is saying to ordinary citizens: Hey, we're all in this together. Let's work together to make things better.

Wait a minute! That's a paraphrase of Aragon's coronation speech!

I guess I am still proverbially digging through the shit to find the pony.

Oh, and that excessively angry guy who did so well in the 50 kid classroom. Maybe if the teacher had had fewer kids she/he could have given him the hug he so desperately needed.

"Capitalism is the Predatory Stage of Human Evolution"

Movie Monday

A late and short posting. I spent the day working on an information sheet for my community. It's working name is Moving Out/Moving In Information Sheet. Like its name says, it's here to help new residents entering and current residents leaving our community. Some advice includes: if you pay your Association fees by direct deposit be sure to stop this service when you leave. Oh, yes, people forget and the bank keeps cranking out those checks.

Thought I spend most of the day on this project, it started to flow into place pretty early. I spent the time working to get the right balance since I didn't want this to become an "Everything you want to know about Association living but didn't know where to ask." I wanted to leave them some reasons to go and talk with their neighbors.

I still have a long lead time to finish this project so I guess part of the reason for my spending the day on this is that I really have nada for Movie Monday.

I did see a good portion of I've Loved You So Long which is the English name of a French film. You know I'm a sucker for subtitles. It was worth watching just for the scene where the younger sister listens silently on the phone to the truth about her nephew's fatal illness while the her child, through subtitles, reads a fairy tale which mirrors the pain the woman is feeling. That was one of those magical moments.

But what I have really been sloughing my way through is Bram Stoker's Dracula in audio version. I read Stoker long ago but I don't remember his ironic humor. Like when Harker in his journal in eastern Europe reports he ate something and he must get the recipe for his finance, Minna. Oh, the silly man, is he going to get a very big surprise, very soon!

And then I'm still watching Twilight. I know, I know, I'm nuts. But I have weird reasons for watching movies. I feel bad that Catherine Hardwicke was "fired" after this movie. She made a damn good movie. Forget the acting (and really that wasn't dreadful) and concentrate on the story which is being told. She and her editor and her screenwriter have to get every viewer from A to Z with an understanding of what was going on in a story with a pretty absurd premise: teen girl may have a future with a vampire. But she does it.

Just like Edward says to Bella: I think I'm going to take you to meet my family, I think I'm going to explain just what I mean next Movie Monday. No, I won't punk out like I did with Towelhead (I never did a full review of that.)

See you next Monday. It's time to go find something in the fridge worth eating.

"Capitalism is the Predatory Stage of Human Evolution"

The NJ governor has proposed that state parking lots be privatized and state workers pay for their parking. I’m afraid this is another of those “red meat” tosses to a rabid base of angry constituents who believe that unions and state workers are the cause of the budget deficit and privatization and lay-offs are the answer. I’m always amazed that the rich can convince the middle class that all their financial woes are caused by the poor. Like that line from The Usual Suspects: The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114814/quotes

I thought the following comment from yesterday in http://www.nj.com/starledger/ sums up nicely the stupidity of such supposed cost saving measures.

Posted by justthefacts March 11, 2010, 10:55PM
Instead of raging against the average state worker who earns $52,000 a year and the college educated teachers who earn an average of $62,000 per year, rage against the Private Sector who Christie's wants to turn the state over to. The Private Sector whose managers earn 277 times what their average worker earns. This is the same Private Sector who rips the State off and the citizens of this state on a daily basis. You want to rage and pick on someone try raging against the private sector instead of state workers and teachers who can't pay their own monthly bills:

Rage against the Utility Companies (PSE&G etc.) who have you over the barrel for ever increasing utility bills that are bankrupting families.

Rage against the Health Insurance Companies whose premiums are out of control and bankrupting this country.

Rage against the oil refiners (Exxon etc) who are ripping you off at the pump and causing plenty of hardship.

Rage against the banks that pick you apart with service charges and almost destroyed the economy of this country.

Rage against the brokerage companies on Wall Street and the slime balls that work for them earning millions in fees and bonuses while getting bailed out by the federal govt.

Rage against the food producers who rip you off at the supermarket.

Why in the world would you want to turn the state over to these rip-off experts? Perhaps because they primarily consist of wealthy Republicans who can profit greatly from privatization. These are the same wealthy individuals Christie is protecting from any income tax increase by shifting the costs of the state onto the backs of the poor and middle class.

Knitting Friday

Yesterday, we went for a really nice short hike at a park in Princeton, NJ. I liked it because I wasn’t wearing hiking shoes but we were able to walk over a mile on a paved path. Which means this can be a spur of the moment hiking area - no need to worry about hiking shoes. Also, the foliage was quite interesting: thick deciduous tree forests, a good sampling of pine and unpaved trails running through them

Then later we stopped at the local branch of our county library and got our library cards renewed (yes, we had let them lapse [they have pin numbers now!] but don’t forget as I’m typing this I can just turn to look at the thousands of books in this room [OK, it’s an addiction] and that’s not counting what I get from Libri Vox and Project Gutenberg on the Internet.) We wanted to renew the cards so we could log on and download audio books. That is, audio recordings of copyrighted books because at the rate I’m going I’ll be though with all the public domain stuff on Libri Vox pretty soon. (No, not really.)

While we were at the library, we looked at their extensive video collection. They must have the entire collection of Masterpiece Theater from PBS. What a treasure trove.

Walking out into the evening sky, I thought: This is the type of stuff which gets the first cut in cost savings. moves. Parks and libraries, who needs such egalitarian luxuries? I wonder if people thinking this even realize how ugly it will be when the whole world turns gray?

And now, on to knitting.

Here’s a picture of my top to bottom knitted shell. It was such an easy knit and is modeled on Mohair Minimalist which can be accessed under Patterns at Ravelry. https://www.ravelry.com/account/login The MM designer modeled her creation off another designer and my shell is a further take off from this.

My Needlework Group wants this shell to be their next mini-lesson.

They: We want to make that.
Me: How about I show you what’s available in needlework on the Internet next time?
They: No, we want to make that.
Me: (sigh)

So I guess I’m teaching this shell next month. Just to be ready, I’ve started a second one in a worsted weight with the same needles and the same number of stitches.

I differed from the MM pattern this way: My cast-on was 80 stitches. I doubled my stitches like the directions but at the bind off area, I worked: Knit 45 stitches for front, bind off 35, Knit 45 stitches for back, bind off 35. Then on the following row, I cast on 20 stitches at each bind off area.

What’s really weird is that these directions work on my original shell using fingering weight and my OTN shell using double knit weight.

My next shell (and yes, there is going to be a third one) will have a K1, P1 ribbing at the neck and not the straight stockinette stitch which causes the rolled collar. While I don’t dislike this look, I want to try a flat look at the collar.

Additionally, I did not allow the bottom hem to roll. (What a place to add extra width!) On the shell pictured, I bound off and then worked one round of single crochet followed by two rounds of extended single crochet. I probably should have added more rounds but I was getting bored. With the OTN, I’m going to drop down at least two needle sizes, US 6, and work a bottom band of seed or garter.

On shells or vest in general: Someone saw the first shell and said with a turned up nose: Oh, that’s so 1970s! Well, I guess it is but it’s also ‘30s and ‘40s and ‘50s - you get the picture. (I think I might even find such a pattern from two centuries ago.) So, I might call it a long-lived pattern. It looks great with a tee under it. In cotton, it’s a summer top. By not binding off the sleeve stitches but putting them on a holder you can go back and work the sleeves into long, short, or elbow length.

Right now, I’m thinking about making a sweater to match the black shell (I have enough yarn.)
Then, it would probably become a “closet set” and only pulled out when I had a fancyish place to go. It would get less wear but it’s not a bad thing to have that party outfit ready; especially since you know how much I hate to shop.

Happy knitting.

"Capitalism is the Predatory Stage of Human Evolution"

Website Wednesday

Well, this is probably another defining moment for the Obama administration. Joe Biden is in Israel looking for peace and the Israelis announce they are building more illegal settlements. Wow! What timing! Do you think they were trying to shove this in the face of the US? Do you think? Whatever. Let's see if the US does more than its usual "tsk, tsk" this time. You know how well this administration has handled health care reform so far. (Note: Folks, that last sentence was sarcasm. I know that sort of thing doesn't translate well on the web all the time.)

But on to Sara Teasdale. Did you ever hear of the poem, I Am Not Yours by Teasdale.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-am-not-yours-2/

I didn''t realize that Teasdale was so sensual. Maybe it was the name: Teasdale, like taking tea in the dale, a nice maiden lady. Was I wrong. This is not a poetry assignment for a 6th grader.

Me to the girl: Why did you choose this poem?
Girl: It was short.
Me: Did you teacher OK it?
Girl: Yes.

I'm sure the teacher (who is one fantastic English teacher) saw Teasdale's name as I did and thought: Oh, what a sweet choice.

But I must admit I had a blast analyzing this poem. I had forgotten how much fun it was to do something you were trained for. I even used Twilight to explain the "addiction."

Now, on to my website pick:

http://www.pandalous.com/

I have Paul Krugman to thank for this pick, or rather a commenter to one of Krugman's columns who linked to it. A lot of commenters will link to some lame website but Pandalous is a real find.

It says of itself:

We're a new, vibrant internet community with a growing membership; we've set out to gather a diverse, thoughtful, and articulate crowd to share in the experience of living.
Why Pandalous?
We found as we grew up that it was going to be more or less impossible to get all the people we missed talking to in the same room (or even the same country) on a regular basis; Pandalous is the living room we wished we had. Of course, being online, it’s part metropolis, part community. You’re very welcome to pull up a chair….
We hope you’ll stay a while and introduce yourself.

They talk about everything on Pandalous. I started reading a discussion of Caravaggio's Medusa. It's quite insightful. Or, how about: On Shakespeare and Lil' Wayne. Apparently, it's really not as antithetical as you might think.

Or how about a real life problem: How do I control my anger? A good discussion follows this question which branches out to tackle revenge and Montaigne. Plus, at the end of some topics you are directed to "siblings" of this topic with "This topic has the following siblings:"

This is definitely not a "rant and rave" discussion site. It's lively, thoughtful and diversely interesting. It's well worth a visit and a bookmark.

"Capitalism is the Predatory Stage of Human Evolution"

Movie Monday

Well, I have been thinking about movies all day. Not particularly the Oscars which I don't think I've ever watched. Even if I had an interest I think the plethora of commercials would flatten me.

Have you ever seen photos of early Oscar ceremonies?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Academy_Awards

It looks like a crowded restaurant scene. Apparently, Hollywood didn't realize it could milk the actual ceremonies until later. It always amused me that the Oscars are such an "inside" award; peers voting for peers but outsiders, the general public, are supposed to ultimately foot the bill.

Sundance had a documentary on yesterday, The Red Carpet (I think that was the full name.) Basically, it told about designers paying big bucks to actors to wear their clothes for the walk on the red carpet (any red carpet will do.) Some actresses said that the money they picked up for being clothes horses helped them turn down lousy parts. Well, I guess hawking some overpriced designer does have a plus side.

I wonder if karma caught up with James Cameron last night. I have a feeling that his Titanic Oscar win speech: "I'm King of the World"never left Hollywood's craw and last night was pay-back time. (On a side note: How did Titanic ever win all those awards? It was an awfully acted and plotted film.)

It was nice to learn that Sandra Bullock won. Her winning role sounded awful; so did that film. I read the plot of The Blind Side; fodder for right wing conservatives but apparently Bullock is the antithesis of this thinking. (Yes, I did watch an interview of her once.) I've always liked her as an actress. (This seems to be a rather universal feeling.) I don't know if she's a very good actress who has been stuck in pedestrian plots or just an above average performer who adds class to any dreck she's stuck in. Whatever, it was a nice win; perhaps not a professionally deserved win (cripes, she was up against Mirren and Streep) but a nice win.

No, I didn't see The Hurt Locker. Should I? Will this movie turn the tide of world thinking towards pacifism? No? Then I'll stick with my usual schlock.

And in that vein, I did read reviews of The Reader as I promised last week and I wasn't in left field with my original comments. Once you got beyond the "I love Kate Winslet." group you could read a lot of comments best summed up in that ubiquitous acronym: WTF?

I'd like to say that this movie had all the parts but didn't sew them together. Unfortunately, I can't even get that far. I'm still grappling with Hanna's sexual prowess and her illiteracy. What was that all about? Do they go together? Like bread and jam? You can see how lost I am.

And now, I'll end my movie ramblings with one final thought: Evita. I didn't know that Antonio Banderas could sing. And second, and really annoying to me: the show-stopping song, Another Suitcase in Another Hall is not Evita's song in the play but the song of Peron's discarded teenage mistress. (Yes, I saw another interview about that song in the play version.)

OK, it's a great song and I can understand if Madonna selfishly wanted to sing it; but it is so incongruous to the setting in which she sings it. She has just come to Bueno Aires with Magaldi. He was obviously her first affair which had taken her from the bosom of her family and her home town. (She could have been the town hooker for all I know.)

Evita sings about how being kicked out at the end of affairs is so difficult. Duh! She hasn't even experienced this yet. However, sung by the teen mistress, the song has roots and tells a story. Just a small point but it's been grating on me.

Now, I think I'll go and chase kids off the lawn. I sound cranky enough.

See you next Monday.

"Capitalism is the Predatory Stage of Human Evolution"

I’m beginning to like my banner. It gives me, and I hope others, something to think about. Like going for a definition of capitalism; just a simple one: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capitalism
Well, that definition is a little more extensive than simple but it’s right on the money (no pun intended.) I never seem to be able to find any reference to workers in capitalism except as it’s implied that they produce the goods so the rich can own them.

Knitting Friday (begun on Thursday this time)

Waiting for a program to load this Thursday afternoon, I think I’ll start my knitting blog for tomorrow.

This one is pretty pathetic. I have been working away at knitting this week but a lot of time was spent in helping kids with homework. Is schoolwork just getting more complex in NJ because the NJEA has seen the light? Or has our new governor lit a fire under them? (He campaigned on fighting the unions, especially NJEA.) I’m not wild about the education standards in the USA. I deplore the fact that we don’t challenge our children intellectually. (Go sports! Should be our national motto.) But when the battle goes into the trenches, while I want accountability in all organizations, including unions, I’ll stand with the unions in this fight. Develop better teaching standards, eliminate tenure plus union protection for teachers, curtail costs (consolidate administrative jobs to curtail costs; bring raises in line with living costs)

However, if your state is broke: go after the money where it really is - Saddle River, Princeton, Ridgewood, Basking Ridge, Deal , the list goes on – with a progressive state income tax. Now that would be ballsy thinking.

But I digress. This is Knitting Friday. I’ve been working on a common problem this week and I’m still looking for a solution. When I say “common problem” I guess I should also say “simple problem.” I remind myself of a woman who enters a bake-off with pancakes to compete against someone’s entry of a 7-tier wedding cake, but I will plow on.

The problem: Cast on 8 stitches and join.

These are common beginning instructions for so many shawls, especially on that fantastic Yahoo group, MMario Knits. I would like a dollar for every shawl he starts that way. I just look at them and move on. Regretting it. but knowing that this cast on makes me feel like I’m working with gorilla hands in boxing gloves (sorry for the slam, King Kong.)

So now, I’m working on a solution. Take a look at the pictures on the right. Take a look at the center of the squares. The right square in garter is taken from:
http://yarnomat.com.au/2010/02/square-in-the-round/ where the original directions are for CO 4 stitches and join. Now perhaps 4 stitches and not 8 would be easier to join but I don't think so. (The left-side square is similar to the right but done in stockinette so I had to work a garter border to prevent massive curling.)

Both were started with a Chain 5 and a join to make a ring. Then for the garter is was: Ch 3, 2 dc, in ring *ch 2, 3 dc*in ring 3xs, ch 2 and join with a sl st to the top of the first ch 3. (The stockinette square I did the same except I used half double crochet stitch instead of double crochet.) This will give you 4 stitches on each side which matches the number of stitches in the original pattern which you need to start the square.

Then I used US 8 DPNs and with the loop as stitch 1, I picked up 4 stitches for each side of the square on each needle. for 16 stitches. After that, I started in working the pattern.

It was so simple without the clumsy beginning you always get when joining a small number of stitches. I'm not happy with the beginning center yet and I'm going to experiment with using single crochet. However, I am planning to tackle a MMario shawl for next week.

I'll leave you with a pattern I cast on for last night. It's Mohair Minimalist and it's a free Ravelry download so I can't link but if you're a Ravelry member take a look. It a shell which starts with a cast on of 68 sts and a join. After that it's an increase across a row for beginning the body and binding off for the sleeves further on. What attracted me is that it is a straight knit in stockinette. Of course, I'm not using mohair, which has a lot of stretch, so I'm improvising already. But that makes knitting fun.

Happy Knitting.

"Capitalism is the Predatory Stage of Human Evolution"

Thoughts on Thursday

I’m sitting at the computer, back to the TV, working on some knitting stuff for tomorrow’s blog and I hear Kathleen Sebelius, the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, talking on a morning pseudo-news show. She talking about passing health care reform but she says something like: Small businesses which are the backbone of this country.

Nothing to do with health care really but my little ears perk up.

When did people start believing that small businesses are the backbone of this country? OK, I don’t want to defame the name of a God a lot of people believe in here, but Jesus H. Christ! WTF?

The backbone of this country is the convergence (you could say the perfect storm) of immigrant workers and robber barons which occurred in the second half of the 1800s. Before that, the country was small business and agrarian. After that, tens of thousands of people settled in this country and found work with big businesses - railroads, steel mills, meat packing munitions, etc. They found work in terrible safety conditions and spent most of their lives paying off the “man” for living in his housing or buying at his store. (Read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.)

But these jobs were the beginning of prosperity for millions in this country. After a long, hard, and bloody struggle, unions emerged and workers saw higher wages, better working conditions and the economy saw the beginning of a middle class.

That was the backbone of this country. I would like to be Pollyanna and think we grew under a Utopian, idyllic, birds chirping in the background, economy where the worker controlled the price of his labor.

We didn’t.

"Capitalism is the Predatory Stage of Human Evolution"

First, I think that my banner can be attributed to Thorstein Veblen. I would probably get definite proof if I splurged and bought: Veblen on Capitalism: Intellectual History in (sic) and Out of Context. However, it looks like a college-type text and you know how expensive they are. Plus, the Internet price for just a complete review of this book is $10!

I did a Google search for the phrase and really got spooked. The first hit is the review I mention above; the second and third hits are my blogs. Jesus H. Christ! It must have been a slow day.

Website Wednesday

I'm keeping this short today because I have to go food shopping. Oh, I know, you're thinking: Big deal. But it is a big deal. We've been hit by snow watches and snow warnings, not to mention actual snow, so that I've been staying away from grocery stores to make room for all the hordes of people who descend on them as soon as the word "snow" is mentioned. It's got to bred in our bones because it happens every time.

So, for the last few days I've been existing on frozen vegetables, (not that there's anything wrong with them) potatoes, and cheese. Well, OK, I'm stretching the truth. We do have a few bananas, one pineapple, a few onions and I found frozen chicken burgers (very tasty though dry the way I kill-cook them.) But even I'm noticing that there's dancing room in the freezer. Oh, I forgot the frozen ravioli. Here's a quick recipe:

Spinach/Cheese Microwave Ravioli
1 serving of spinach and cheese mini ravioli (regular size will also work)
1 jar of pasta sauce

1. In a large microwave bowl, place a layer of sauce on the bottom
2. Add a serving size of ravioli
3. Cover all the ravioli with another layer of sauce.
4. Cover the bowl and place in the microwave at a regular setting for 2 minutes
5. Stir the ravioli and microwave for another minute.
6. Check for doneness (add 30 seconds more intervals if necessary.)
7. Remove and eat. Be careful, the bowl may be hot.

That's it. You can add veggies towards the end or cooked meatballs, whatever.

I discovered this when I had a starving boy who just couldn't wait for the traditional ravioli cooking method. Now I think the packages suggest this as a way of cooking ravioli.

And on to the website:

http://www.costhelper.com/

Here's their About Us for their simple and but very important service:

CostHelper.com aims to be the premier shopping and cost information community on the Internet.

Each topic contains an article researched and written by our editorial staff. Our writers and editors are committed to providing high quality, accurate and objective information. While the site is supported in part by advertising, we clearly demarcate the independent editorial content from links sponsored by advertisers.

But our articles are just the start. We invite members of CostHelper.com to share their own knowledge and experiences with others, to create the broadest, most detailed community resource possible. Our vision is to create a place where you can find cost information on whatever you are looking for, wherever you may be looking, so you can easily plan your budget, find a great price that others are paying, and get started on buying what you're looking for.

We hope to become your destination whenever you are budgeting or thinking about a new, complicated purchase.

I checked out their site on Knitting and Crocheting costs (because I know something about this) and they seem right on the money.

What I really like is all the links they have within a topic.

For example: check out Divorce Costs and you get a link to divorce laws by state. Now I hear you saying: But how do you know this is all legit? OK, I would have to do a lot more research to answer that definitively but, for example, the NJ New Jersey Divorce Residency Requirements link cites the NJ Statutes so I'm inclined to give CostHelpers a lot of credibility. Another site about the cost of vinyl costing links to the This Old House site for more information. So you could come here for some quick answers and wind up spending a lot of informative time.

I like to bookmark sites like this. You'll be surprised how often you'll be using it.

OK, it's 7 a.m. and I have to light a fire under me. I think I'll make a shopping list this time.

Enjoy.

"Capitalism is the Predatory Stage of Human Evolution"

Movie Monday

It’s March 1st and my birthday month is over so it’s back to serious work.

The Reader: A review

Where to begin with The Reader? This is one of the most frustrating reviews I’ve ever written and I don’t mean just these postings but in my varied career of reviewing stuff.

First, the acting: Kate Winslet is superb as the bright, illiterate Hanna who ages 30 years so realistically. Ditto for David Kross as the young Michael Berg. Superb reality shading acting from both. What do I mean by that? Well, we all know that movies are phony. We’re looking at actors pretending and existing in a phony reality for the length of the movie. Superb acting shades reality and you become “one” with the scene, suspending disbelief as you watch the performances.

You can tell that Winslet put a lot of thought into her Oscar winning performance. From her hairy underarms to the slight paunch as she ages to the shots of her “old” hands and feet (Could they have really been hers?) I checked and she is 13 years younger than Ralph Fiennes (who plays the adult Michael Berg) yet it is impossible not to believe she is twenty years his senior as she is in this role.

I thought the supporting actors did a great job (except for Michael’s fellow law student who is given the thankless lines of musing the morality of the Nazi camp guards - moralizing is always a tough role to play well.) The chief judge at Hanna’s trial (Burghart Klaußner) and the law professor (Bruno Ganz) are just two I’ll mention. I was pleased that Klaußner avoided the Spencer Tracy type of acting (ala Judgment at Nuremberg) and brought surprising humanness to his role.

OK, so you get the point that I thought the acting was top drawer. You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned Fiennes. He was fine in his role. (In fact, in my four [!!] viewings of the prison scene between him and Hanna, I cried. I have no idea why. I’m not a movie crier but there was something in that short scene where the lovers meet for the first time in almost 40 years that struck a chord. Since I’m not a movie crier; that had to be good acting.) My only problem with Fiennes (and this is going to sound so picky) is that the facial structure of the young Michael Berg could never, except with extensive plastic surgery, grow up to look like Ralph Fiennes. Because of this, I just saw him as a good actor, not in the same league and Winslet and Kross.

Well, it’s five paragraphs down from the top and you may have caught on that I have not discussed the movie, only the actors. OK, now I’ll bell the cat: I just don’t get the movie. I makes absolutely no sense to me. Unless I look at it as being deeply metaphoric, I can’t figure out the logic behind any of this.

I think I’m at a disadvantage because I have not read the book nor looked at any comments/reviews regarding this film. Like Mortimer Adler’s advice for reading great books, I think a movie should be judged in the context of itself without director’s meaning, author’s intent, etc.

I have a feeling the director said: Oh, they will have read the book (I think this was a popular book) so they’ll get this. I didn’t get it.

First, I didn’t get Hanna. She was a sexually experienced, high-functioning illiterate living, not as a backward maid on a farm, but in a bustling city. We also know she is an excellent worker since she is offered two promotions on different jobs. Both times she has to move away because she would need to read and write in the new position, something she can’t do. In fact, Hanna would never have been on trial for war crimes if she hadn’t been illiterate since she only took the SS guard job when she was promoted at Siemens and had to leave there.

Second, her sexual experience. Hanna wasn’t seducing Michael in the good old missionary position. I think the expression is that she had been around the block, many times. What kind of sexual life did she have prior to Michael? Remember, she has no friends.

Third, why did she methodically seduce Michael? Did she think from the get-go: He’s a school kid, he can read, he can read to me, I’ll seduce him so he’ll stay.

Fourth, why doesn’t young Michael tell the court that Hanna is illiterate? It’s not because he visits the camps because it’s after his visit there that he tells his professor that he has information helpful to a defendant (that she is illiterate and could not have written the church burning report) and the prof says he must speak the truth. He doesn’t of course and Hanna is convicted and given a life sentence because she is considered the ring leader. I found it interesting that Hanna was 23 or so when she allowed the prisoners to burn in the church and Michael was a 23 year old law student when he remains silent and allows Hanna to receive a life sentence. Both were betrayals, in different degrees.

Finally, why doesn’t Hanna speak up in court and say she is illiterate? We may think that she willingly becomes the scapegoat here but years later she tells Michael that she has never thought about the camps. The dead are still dead. Does she mean this? In frustration, I’d say: From this movie, how the hell would I know?

And that’s my biggest problem with the film. Aside from the great acting, I’m watching a plot that makes no sense. It’s like hearing a singer in pure pitch sing gibberish.

I finally boiled this whole thing down to something that made some sense to me: Hanna represents the scapegoat we eagerly punish to assuage our complicity. Michael only becomes human at the end of the film when he shares his history with his daughter. While he is much too young to actually be guilty of crimes against humanity in WWII, he metaphorically represents the collective guilt all adults share when they stand by and do nothing. Something unfortunately, even after so many genocides, victor countries still run from.

Yes, I know I’m really stretching it but I’m really coming up empty.

And now, I’m finally going to look at reviews and comments on this movie and hopefully figure the damn thing out.

Perhaps this will be continued next Monday.