Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Website Wednesday

OK, it's Thursday but Wednesday was a traveling day, my coffee maker broke, and the dog ate my homework.

Here's my pick:

http://www.randomblog.org/

This is just pictures with captions. You know the type. Many are witty; some are even wittier; a few are just "flat" or indecipherable. Watch out for the many "not for kids" ones, but those can be the best.

I can't find out much about this site in the "About" but the pictures do the talking here. You can submit pictures to them and, this caught my eye: See yourself in a random pic, and don’t want to be? Send us the link, we will remove it.

So they will photo shop you out of your reality. Cool!

Enjoy.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Movie Monday

Well, it's been some time since I last posted (What a stupid, obvious statement, but, I, and so many other bloggers must love it since it's used so often.)

This is unbelievably the first day in a month when the temp did not hit the 90s by 8 am. This is also the first day in a month that the kids are in camp.

Happy day for me and for them in that the temp is bearable.

Some day I want to watch The Road, that bleak post apocalyptic drama where civilization has ended and mankind is following. Apparently, it makes slight mention of how the world got in such a bad way. Global warning? Did it start with very hot summers and very cold winters? I wonder.......

I saw most of 2012. What a crock! Woody Harrelson really has the crazed, but factually correct guy down pat. You know, the guy who knows the world is headed for destruction, knows the government(s) is engaged in a huge cover-up, and, wait for it - has "the map" to help the hero get to safety. Of course you know that he, as the crazy but factually accurate loon, is not going to make it to the credit roll.

John Cusack was the hero of this movie. He's the modern divorced dad which directors love to use as heroes these days. I was a little disappointed that he wound up back with his wife in the end. I really thought her present main squeeze was likable (hell, her kids really liked him) but probably the director was afraid to introduce the polygamy angle since the survivors are looking forward to starting up a new Eden - and you know how that turned out.

We also saw the original Planet of the Apes with the kids. They were mesmerized. I had forgotten what an iconic film it was. I had forgotten the religion vs. science angle also. Who would have thought that almost 50 years later, after all the advances in science, this movie could have elements right out of today's headlines?

I'm also watching another Harrelson movie, Zombieland but I have a visceral dislike of the two sisters who are main characters and it's ruining the movie for me. I just don't like them and I can't get past them to review the movie. I had the misfortune of flipping it on twice when they played a prominent role: when they capture the zombie hunters and when they pretend the little sister has been zombie bitten.

It's like when I watched Jackson's The Frighteners. I cringed every time the FBI agent appeared. I hated how this character was played. It ruined those scenes for me.

I guess the visceral attraction or aversion to movies is pretty important. Once you get beyond all the film school criticism, that's really what keeps you in your seat or sends you running from the theater. I think I'll try Zombieland one more time.

I can recommend Adventureland with Kristen Stewart. She really is a good indie actress. Everyone was good in this movie. Everyone seemed real. I bought into the highs and lows of everyone's angst. It was surprising that both hero and heroine as college graduates were working in the bittersweet dump of Adventureland but it's all explained realistically. This is worth the watch.

Finally, a Miss M. update, which concerns movies. But first, apologies for no pictures. I'm at the wrong computer for pictures today.

Miss M. went to see Toy Story 3 (not a dry eye among the moms at the end.) It's part of her service dog training. She was pretty nervous due to all the kids and the noise. She promptly fell asleep. Should I take this as a review?

Enjoy your week. Hope your weather is bearable.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Movie Monday

Every time I post, I read my banner and think: I really do understand Voltaire's last line in Candide (was it really the last line? I'm too lazy to check): Cultivate your own garden.

It doesn't make me happy. To paraphrase the journalist in War, Inc.: It's no fun always being on the losing side.

But I have been cultivating my knitting garden since I last posted Knitting Friday and the crop has been fantastic.

First, my cotton summer top which was started last summer. Did that linger on the needles!

The picture looks like it flares on the bottom but that isn't the case. It's done in a pattern of a 10 stitch x 13 rows square of stockinette followed by the same sized square in seed stitch. Since it was started last summer, it's pre-top-down knitting so perhaps that's why it languished on the needles - I hate the finishing work you have to do on bottom up knitting - even when they are knitted in the round.

Since I finished this top, I've made three others. One which was a bear - splitty yarn and so much finishing at the end. But I wasn't sure I would have enough yarn tor a top-down (I would have) and I've found that top-down knitting (at least the way I do it (CO 80, work a top band, increase to 140 - 160 sts, work straight to about 7", etc. )takes much more yarn than a traditional bottom up garment.

For any doubters, here's the proof:
With a bottom-up top: I CO 120 sts and work my pattern for about 12". Then I bind off 12 sts front and back or the armholes so I'm now working on 96 stitches (split evenly) for about 4" - 7" (depending on style) when I start my 6 stitch bind off at the front and back neck.
With a top-down top: I start with only 80 stitches for the neck band but I quickly almost double that number (140 -160 sts) to work the top to the armhole. So, while the body may be the same in 120 stitches for both styles, the yoke area of my top-down design eats more yarn.

This tank has much more front "droppage" and much thinner shoulder straps than what's pictured above. But it's my coolest and most form fitting tank top (*K4, seed stitch on 3 sts* across.) At 100+ degrees, I looked comfortable; though at 100+ degrees, I doubt any clothes are comfortable.

After I finished this tank, I worked up two more top-down cotton tops. I'll post pictures of all next week. Whoo-hoo!

But I'll leave you will a trick I learned out of desperation:
For one of my top down tops, I used a *K5 then seed stitch on 5 sts* pattern. Now, you know that the reasons I like the Mohair Minimalist type of top-down (CO x sts, work band, double the X sts and work to armhole) over the raglan type top-down is because with the raglan you are very, very limited in your stitch pattern choices unless you want to perform knitting cartwheels.

So, I was quite happy with my pattern though I knew had to watch when I bound off for the armhole since my last armhole in a similar top-down had a bind off 35 sts for the top of the armhole and cast on of 20 for the underarm and it was a disaster - leaving a gaping armhole which needed major work.

I figured this time I would bind off 30 and cast on 15 for a 45 stitch armhole which was 10 stitches fewer. Perhaps a snug armhole, but doable.

It didn't happen; with my pattern I had to bind off and cast on in 5s (25 - 15) or 10s (30 -20), not one in 5s and one in 10s.

OK, so my conundrum was that I couldn't get a 45 stitch armhole, I couldn't use any armhole bigger than that without a gap, and that my only choice of a 40 stitch armhole (BO 30, CO 10) was going to be too tight.

So I googled "stretchy bind off" and the heavens opened up to give me this:

Knit two stitches. *Pass the first stitch over the second - as you would in a typical bind off.
Then, take this remaining stitch on the RN and return it to the LN. Knit it again and the next stitch.*
Repeat across from *.

So while the cast on 10 stitches was still a paltry amount (I used the thumb-cast on for maximum looseness.), the 30 bound-off stitches formed a wavy, attractive, and very loose finish. The armhole worked!

OK, that's enough typing and more than enough reading for you.

Here's Coquille, a shawl pattern from the latest Knitty which I'm pondering:

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEff10/PATTcoquille.php

It has a lot of short rows so it doesn't look like a boring knit.

Happy knitting.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Movie Monday

Being on a summer schedule, I'm not posting regularly but I do have a review of Eclipse. The girl saw the advanced screening last Wednesday night. (It was booked as a 9 pm show but people were lining up by 4 pm so the theater got permission to run the movie at 7 pm. By the time she left a little after 9 pm, the parking lot was packed with the line for the midnight showing.)

Reading the answers to the questions I asked her, you'll soon realize she loved the movie. Plus, although she is Team Jacob, she won a life-sized cutout of Edward (yes, it's 6'1" tall) which resides in her room so it's the first thing she sees when she awakens. Of course, there may be something in the animosity between wolves and vampires because Miss M growls at Edward all the time - the only one in the house who does.

A 12 year old's Eclipse review:

1. What were your favorite scenes?
The sex scenes. Bella and Edward on the bed kissing and trying to undress each other. Esme holding a newborn and Carlisle karate chopping the head off. (Note: I’m assuming that’s not a sex scene.)
2. What were your least favorite scenes?
Liked them all.
3. Was this movie better than the other two? Why?
Totally better because of the director, the CGIs, and the graphically violent scenes. Plus, the story line.
4. Did the character of Edward, Bella and Jacob change from the first movies? How?
Yes, Bella is between the “person who she is and who she should be.” Jacob is more protective. Edward seems more loving.
5. Were there any plots from the book which were ignored in the movie? Which ones? Did you miss them?
Some dialogue was missing when Jacob kisses Bella. Charlie doesn’t support Jacob (after the unwanted kiss) as he does in the book. I missed this. “It was funny.”
6. Were any plots added to the movie which weren’t in the book? Which ones? Did they help the plot?
The motorcycle scene where Bella goes off with Jacob and leaves Edward. It didn’t help the plot.
7. If you hadn’t read the book(s) would you understand what was happening in the movie?
Probably not. I wouldn’t have understood the Volturi and about ½ of the plot.
8. This is called a horror movie. Was it? Why?
Yes. Vampire killing innocent people. Heads ripped off.
9. What about the special effects? Which ones were great? Which ones weren’t?
Wolves were the best. Not too good were the clumps of ice which appeared when the vampires’ heads come off.
10. Were the main actors better/worse in this movie?
Bella was the same. Edward and Jacob were much better.
11. In the book, Bella is very upset that she hurts Jacob (the crying all night scene), did she feel the same way in the movie?
Not really. (Note: a lot of online discussion of this change and Bella’s ending monologue as to why she wants to become a vampire.)
12. What was missing from the movie which you would have liked to have seen?
When Charlie says in the book after Jacob’s forced kiss: Good for you, kid.
13. What was added to the movie which you felt was “fluff” to fill time?
Alice’s party and the talk afterward.
14. What about the tent scene? Was it different from the book? Did you like it? Why?
Close to the book. It was very good.
15. How about Bree? Was she what you expected? Why? Why not?
She was. I had seen her like that. She acts like that.
16. Some critics say that Victoria was not mean enough. Do you agree?
She was like a snake; watching then running away slowly.
17. To me, the middle of New Moon was loooong. How about Eclipse? Did it “leave you wanting more?”
Yes. It was amazing.
17a: What more?
Breaking Dawn
18. Were the fight scenes realistic?
Yes.
19. Who were your favorite minor characters? Why?
Bree. Alice. The Cullens. Leah was too stuck up, snotty.
20. Did the movie make you feel that Bella had really thought out her decision to become a vampire?
I kinda felt she was rushing into it because she was afraid of changing her mind.
21. Other comments?
Charlie was very funny. When is Breaking Dawn coming out?