Capitalism - Feudalism without the King
Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday

In the wee small hours of Monday morning, I skimmed through about 3 years of my blogs. No, it was not for egotistical purpose: Oh, I just love reading my words, but rather because I was looking for a crochet pattern which I knew I had posted some time ago and which I couldn't find again with a simple google. (Of course, I did learn you must use at least some correct terms when you google if you want success, but more on this on Knitting Friday.)

Even with a skim, I discovered some cringeable errors. (I have 4 proofers with my newsletter; I'm solo with my blog, of course.) The most common was "is" for "it" and vica versa. You'd be surprised how an error in those two letters can cause reading havoc. I also discovered a comment which I never saw. (Many apologies, more on this also on KF.)  

But the funniest error, for me, was in my review of A Dangerous Method, an atypical movie by  Cronenberg which looks at the relationship between Freud and Jung. I liked the movie but had major problems with the portrayal of the interaction between Jung and Sabina Spielrein (first his patient, then his lover). It was Keira Knightley's portrayal of Sabina which had my teeth clenched. It may have been historically accurate but it tilted the focus of the movie for me and not in a positive way.

You ask: OK, don't rehash your review. What was your error? My error was that twice in the review I refer to the movie's title as Dangerous Minds, which is a movie with Michelle Pfeiffer, an actor I've always appreciated even if her movie is not that hot. (Grease 2 ring a bell?) And, in spite of being almost 30 years older than Knightley, I think Pfeiffer could have brought so much more to the role of Sabina. But to refer to ADM as Dangerous Minds (where Pfeiffer plays an ex-Marine schoolteacher) twice in a review of a movie about the beginnings of psychoanalysis? Reading this last Monday morning, I thought: How weird. But then I thought: No, how Freudian. That was the funny part. Even Freud would have gotten a chuckle.

And and in keeping with a chuckle, let's start with a light site:

http://www.wonderfulinfo.com/ 

Just cruise around on Wonderful Info, clicking everything click-able. You'll get a barrage of interesting trivia and a load of conversation fillers: Say, did you know............

With Demilked below, let's start with this page:

 http://www.demilked.com/must-see-historical-photos/

You know I like historical photos but you're going to get some new ones here, some heart-breaking ones. Then go to the home site: 

http://www.demilked.com/

and start clicking. Demilked is a fascinating site which "milks" design examples (get it? Demilked) from other sites. Amazing, weird, must-see. Oh, and don't miss the comments.

OK, my final pick is pretty unusual for me, quotes for tired moms:

http://alisongolden.com/69-inspirational-quotes-for-tired-mothers

Just as it's really tough being a good human it's doubly tough trying to raise them. Allison writes a sensible blog and I like her collection of You can do it! quotes for moms. Then, be sure to click Home for a lot of interesting entries on mom stuff.

That's it for today. The hospice nurse will be here this morning and I'm going to spend some time relaxing by surfing the web (does anyone use that term anymore?)

See you next Wednesday.

 

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the King
Tax the Rich

Knitting Friday

Sorry I have been so bad with knitting pictures but here's a new one (last Tuesday) of Miss A.

Don't mess with me, I'm in love

She is back from her second visit with Mr. O and yes, she is still smitten.

Life around the old homestead (just like in a Gene Autry movie which, unfortunately at times, are the only movies worth watching in my Verizon movie packet) gets more and more crowded. I've been noticing that the hospice nurse, who used to visit for perhaps 30 minutes, spends over an hour with us now. Things are changing for the worse but still not fast enough for DM.

I tried two new things in knitting this week. (No pictures.) First, I attempted:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mini-mania-scarf 

It's called the mini mania scarf and supposedly it's a good way to use up different sock yarns. Well, I don't have variegated sock yarn so I Russian joined a few different colored yards of yarn and worked the pattern. Didn't like the results because I find when you change colors in a pattern with knit bumps (as opposed to the smooth right side of stockinette), the look is pretty lousy. Like you should have ditched the project and thrown out your remnants. But if you have variegated sock yarn you may want to try the free pattern. Be warned: there's a lot of hand/wrist motion with YF and YB throughout each row.

I had better luck with:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pi-in-the-sky-ii---seaweed--sand

which is a variation of the famous Elizabeth Zimmerman semi-circle Pi shawl. I've learned a lot about this type of shawl. The principle is that after the top-down cast on and a few increase rows, you work in a pattern for a while (any pattern which fits in the number of stitches you have), then you work a row which doubles your stitches. On these increased stitches you work in the same or new pattern (you can do some simple fudging to get the needed stitch count) until you are ready for another increase row. You repeat this sequence: pattern, increase row, pattern, increase row..... until your shawl is as wide as you want. Then, until you get to your bind off or border area, you work straight (no increases) in a pattern stitch. Once I figured out this concept, the shawl became easy-peasy and I understand why EZ is so respected. (Her circle shawls work on easy principles also.)

Finally, I'm going to make the announcement that I'm dieting. I'm announcing this so I will be shamed if I "fall off the wagon." Dieting and shame; oh, I'm sure that's going to be a winner.

More on this next week: you'll hear either weeping or cheering. Happy knitting.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the King
Tax the Rich 

Website Wednesday: Wait for It..........It's Here! 

OK, it's early Wednesday and I'm ready to post before a busy day but..... it ain't going to happen. For the second time in a week, my website picks which I know are listed under the Sent Items in another computer way in the far reaches of the house do not appear in the mailbox on this early morning computer on my sloppy desk where I type in my pj's before starting my day. DRAT! Now there's a word you don't hear much. Oh well, I'm not despairing nor waiting till tomorrow. When I get to my "bad" mailbox in a few hours, I'll just post Website Wednesday then. Oh, I have become so sanguine!

Now I'm at the "bad" computer and sure enough, here are my website picks e-mail for today. 

But before I list them, here's something I wrote after the special Senate election in NJ last Wednesday but never posted: 

Cory Booker was elected to the Senate from NJ this Wednesday (Yes, on Wednesday. Our Gov did everything he could to distance his November election [hope not] from the popular Democratic Booker. He spent $12M to move it it to a "special day", Wednesday, in October and still NJ voted soundly for Booker. OK, a Yahoo was running against him but, hey guys, this is Jersey and electing a black Senator (one of only two among 100) isn't exactly on our "claim to fame" wish list. Now, if a local baton twirling team had made nationals............

Booker has promised to reform our prison system. He had me before; he sealed my vote with that.

On to the picks:

http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=6288&cpage=1

This one is a treasure. "Scout" scouts movie locations in NY and then posts pictures of the sites on his blog. What a trip back into the past, and present. Interesting blog to read, great for the visuals alone. Be sure to click "Favorites."

(Hour with hospice nurse, back again.)

http://www.neatorama.com/#!l9GMe 

Neatorama is just a neat site especially in the Halloween season (which seems to extend for as long as the Xmas selling season these days.) It says of itself:  Neatorama is the neat side of the Web. We bring you the neatest, weirdest, and most wonderful stuff from all over the Web every day. Maybe not for office viewing but a lot of fun here.

OK, I am really, really trying to lose weight even as I gobble up all the comfort food around me. While in my present circumstances I may not be a poster child for healthy eating and activities, I like to read this site for inspiration:

http://www.coachcalorie.com/

For me, it's a good source of encouragement. What do you think?

And staying with food: what do 200 calories look like? Take a look:

http://memolition.com/2013/07/01/what-200-calories-looks-like/

A slide show which makes you think.

And in keeping with a light Website Wednesday, let me end with:

http://cool-smileys.com/text-emoticons

It may be old-fashioned but for those of us who still type messages, here are all the emoticons you'll ever need.

That's it. Time to think about lunch for my patient. I hate blogging in the late morning with all the interruptions. Give me the wee hours of the morning every time. See you next week.

Note: Sorry for the different fonts/sizes. As usual, I see no easy fix for this.

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the King
Tax the Rich

Knitting Friday

I spent the early morning hours collating all the clues for the CreAL KAL on Ravelry. There are 6 shawl clues in all but you must double that number because each clue can be knitted with or without a lovely central spine (which is what drew me to this KAL.) So with an average of 5 pages per clue x 2 you're printing out 60 pages here. Plus the swatch, grafting and abbreviations pages. Plus the 7th clue with is 4 different ways to put on the border at 6 pages each for 24 more pages. Now you're pretty close to 100 pages. And this is a free KAL! (Free when it started, $6 now.) I did find some time to work up the swatch which is good because you get to practice all the types of stitches like the upside-down, backward 4 stitch cable (joking.) But there are a lot of different stitches. There is no way I'm going to get to this beauty for quite some time; but I'm ready.

#1 Is this going to work?

Remember last week I mentioned that I was experimenting with this shawl:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/two-face

which was done in two colors in stockinette but I wanted to work it in R1: *YO, K2tog and R2: K. What you see in #1 is just that. You can see that the peach side has vertical columns and the green side has horizontal ones. I sort of like it and I'm thinking about plowing along with it or else changing it slightly so that one color would be *YO, K2tog* and the other color would be *SSK, YO*. I have no idea if this variation would tweak it straight but making another swatch to find out will be easy.

#2 Sleep Sofa throw

Now that I have redecorated the family room/kitchen, created a fifth wall and decided to keep the never-used sleep sofa covered because it's part of the fifth wall and 9' from the kitchen stove, I have to hide the worn spot on the arm of the slipcover. What to do? I'm going to use the hues of gold/golden yellow from the 100 skeins of KP Palette yarn DH got me for my b-day and make an very light throw to cover the arm.  (The sofa is dark green with a touch of gold.) #2 shows the throw so far. It's this pattern:

http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/crochet-corner-corner-throw 

My variation is that I make a rectangle, not a square. How?, you ask. Once you get to your width, keep increasing on one side (and be sure to mark this side) and only decrease on the other. Continue this way to your length and then just follow the pattern directions for decreasing on both sides. Easy as pie. But filling in that "hole" when you start decreasing both sides takes a lot of yarn. Oh, and I'm using an L hook on fingering weight yarn.

#3 Reversible Scarf - RS

#4 WS of #3

And finally, on the left, #3, is a prototype for a beige, wool DK weight scarf. What I did was search for reversible knitting stitches. Here's a good site:

http://www.knittingonthenet.com/stitches.htm

I copied out 3 pages of reversible stitches and I'm working down my list doing every other one, but not doing any of the really simple ones like seed. This swatch started out on US 13 needles but the stitch definition was lousy. #3 is on US 10 and I think I'm going up to US 10.5 for the final project. There are 4 rows of K at the beginning of the scarf (and the end, of course), 4 rows of K between each pattern (patterns are about 24 rows each) and 3 stitches in K on each side of every row. Here's the reverse side in #4 which unfortunately decided to rotate itself (sorry about that) but you can see that there is really no right or wrong side to this scarf.

That's it for today. I really see no new knitting projects ahead for a while. I have that Lion Brand Barbizon Lace scarf and the Groovy Lace scarf to finish. And just a few more rows on a wool vest which has been hanging fire for ages.

#5 Miss A before she fell in love

 So, for inspiration I'll end with a picture of Miss A. who is going to NYC for a training session and may be seeing her love, Mr. O.

See you next week. Happy knitting.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the King
Tax the Rich 

Thoughts on Thursday or What Happened to Website Wednesday 

OK, here's my excuse note, teach: The hospice nurse came early yesterday but I had good intentions of posting later in the day. However I got real busy and also Miss A., who went away for the weekend and fell in love with another Seeing Eye pup, Mr. O., has been moping all week and needs huge reassurances that she will see him again (at puppy meetings) or she just lays in the sun away from every one and sighs.

But Cory Booker will be our next senator from NJ. People say that it's scary that spooky Steve Lonegan came in at 44% to Booker's 54% but this is sub rosa racist NJ where touting an Obama bumper sticker  in '08 and '12 was risky business at times. And the country did not go into default though it's obvious that the tea baggers are hopping mad that they were not allowed to blackmail their opponents into submission (repeal "Obamacare" or we won't vote to raise the debt ceiling) and they still are bat-shit stupid as to how representative government is supposed to work. But I do have some picks for you.

Here's a thinking site:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201310/why-oprahs-anti-atheist-bias-hurts-so-much 

Apparently Oprah dissed atheists (I don't think they are in her "got-to-be-nice-to" demographic) and because of this we get an insightful article on anti-atheist prejudice we non-god believers get all the time. Don't forget to read the comments; the majority of the ones I read were quite thoughtful. Cruising around Psychology Today isn't a bad idea either.

This site took a long time to load so I recommend it with reservations: 

http://www.springoo.com/ 

However, good stuff to read and see here if you have the patience.

I wanna be a teacher:

http://www.giftcardgranny.com/blog/the-complete-list-of-66-teacher-discounts/

Well, I am a teacher. I wanna go back to work! There are some really neat discounts for teachers listed here. And click around for discounts for the rest of us mere mortals.

And now just one more because tomorrow is Knitting Friday and I have to get ready:

http://news.discovery.com/ 

Is this the Discovery Channel site? Don't know but many of the items are correct so I'm going to trust the science till someone cries: Foul. (OK, they have an article on Jesus being a Roman government invention and that raised some yelling.) Take a look. This site seems like a good way to get some fast facts.

That's it. See you next week. Hope to have Website Wednesday back on its right day then.

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the King
Tax the Rich

 

Knitting Friday

Early on, the hospice social worker (bright, articulate, fantastic woman) said that cardiac cases move along with plateaus, dips, new plateaus, new dips. Each time dipping further into sicker stages but also staying at these stages for short or long times before dipping again. In the 5 months, DM has dipped from a relatively good health stage (one where we questioned: Is she really sick?*) into one where we and she know she's not coming back.  And so we wait. At least the Zoloft is blocking her frustration.*This is pretty typical with beginning hospice since the patient gets better care than when he/she was on his/her own.

 

And through it all, even with wider and wider periods of inactivity (hibernation, yes, like the bears, set in some time ago), I find myself reading and not knitting. Oh, I knit is spurts of one or two rows but the two lace scarves which are now half-done seem to be crawling, not sprinting, along.

 

What am I reading, you ask? Short stories and Caro's bio of LBJ. I now have books in the family room on the hutch near the rocking chair, next to the fireplace, near the sliding glass door so I can read and rock with a lot of nature light.

 

I do have a wish list for knitting and crocheting:

 

http://auntekristy.blogspot.com/2013/09/free-pattern-definitely-diagonal-scarf.html

 

I made a swatch. which worked up very nicely with just enough variation that you won't get bored but also enough garter rows so you can look up to watch TV. Don't get spooked that you start on Row 4 after the set-up. It works.

Here's a free crochet pattern from Ravelry which I swatched also:

 

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hitchin-a-ride 

 

 It's based on the paid knitted Hitchhiker:

 

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hitchhiker

Once again, don't be a scaredy cat like I was, In the set-up section, just before the main pattern, you start the saw tooth edge by turning before you work the last two ch2-spaces (Note: the pattern calls for sc, ch1, sc for the mini-shell. Save your sanity and work this as: sc, ch 2, sc.) The next row after the saw tooth will say "work to the end". They mean the end before the 2 unworked ch2-spaces. I kept wanting to work through these spaces to the end, like to do on wrap and turn, but that was a mistake. Oh, and be sure to mark that 1st sc as they say and also mark the side where you ch1 and T. (You only do that on one side.)

Here's a knitted shawl I want to try since I have those 100 skeins of Knit Picks Pallette from DH as a birthday present:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/two-face

It's called Two Face because each side of the triangle is a different color. I'm going to experiment to see if I could do the body of the shawl in "YO, K2tog* instead of stockinette.I have to get this right since you're increasing, folding one color into the other and working a pattern which needs a multiple of 2 at the same time.

And finally:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/chain-maille-fingerless-mittens

I'm using this fingerless mittens pattern to make a scarf with a foundation chain of 12 loops (this foundation is great because you work your width/length one loop at a time) with an N hook and DK yarn. Just be sure to count your loops every few rows so you won't go from 12 to 15 as I did. It's a count of chain 9 then chain 2 and it's easy to mind-wander and start counting "chain 9, chain 2, chain 2.") I'll have a picture of this one next week. It's a good way to use up stray skeins.

Got to go. See you next week. Happy knitting.

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the King
Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday

As I wrote last Friday, DM has graciously allowed me to clean out stuff, re-arrange rooms, work like a dog, while she is still with us. 

I got what I wished for and I now get ready for sleep at night thinking: Please, let my legs hold out till I reach the bed. But I awaken in the wee hours of every morning as usual, refreshed and ready to put in another bad-breaking day.

I know I should be screaming about the US federal government shutdown, one among so many other plights in the world, but I finished redecorating the kitchen/family room yesterday and when I turned and saw for the first time what I had achieved, I was so happy that the any pall of anger, worry and bone-chilling ennui disappeared.

No money was spent, nothing out-of-the-ordinary was done but the rooms popped alive. The flow of the eye across both rooms to the wide sliding glass door worked. The half wall with 2 chests facing the kitchen and a couch facing the rec room proved once again that architect, Louis Sullivan, was right when he coined: Form follows function. I wanted a divider between the two rooms without an interruption to the flow of the space; I got it.

I am so happy and in this happy, happy, happy, joy, joy, joy mood let me share some sites I traveled last week in my decorating quest.

First, let's start with:

http://www.houzz.com/alcove 

I started trying to work a new look in the two alcoves by the family room fireplace (didn't achieve that) so I began looking for alcove ideas. It was on Houzz where I saw a dining room table in front of a fireplace and I started thinking maybe I could move the kitchen table (really a fantastic Heywood Wakefield which closes to seat 2 and expands, with leaves, to fit 18)  from the kitchen area to the family room area without having me/others think: Oh, look another table plopped into a seating area where it doesn't belong. While there is a fireplace in that room but I didn't wind up using that idea. However, this table (lovely, deep, rich wood) did work in front of the sliding glass door. Now it looks like it was always part of the room.

But while I love looking at Houzz's clean, clean rooms which must be in the zillions when it comes to square footage (these rooms are big!) and never inhabited by the squealing kiddies, or even any one of the human species (these rooms are clean!), the following site is  more realistic for usable ideas by normal mortals:

http://www.hgtv.com/

At least here HGTV shows you rooms where you don't have to hire a cab to get from one wall to the other.

However, I don't overlook apartment sites for some great ideas: 

http://freshome.com/2012/10/01/bes-small-apartments-designs-ideas/ 

At this FreshHome site you get 30 ideas or click below where Pinterest gives you many more such ideas, all of them linked back to FreshHome:

http://www.pinterest.com/freshome/apartment-interior-design/ 

And finally, if you space is smallish but your own, be sure to check out this site:

http://www.sunset.com/home/decorating/creative-small-home-design-ideas-00400000066187/ 

where you get ideas for smaller rooms. And Sunset has recipes!

That's it for this week. All interior design, all the time. Good ideas, eye candy, "I can do that" moments.

Enjoy. See you next week.

 

  

Capitalism - Feudalism without the King
Tax the Rich 

Knitting Friday 

Absolutely no new knitting so no pictures. But DM has given a fantastic concession: I can start clearing out her old furniture (much is very nice) and "stuff". So, I have been spending every spare minute doing just that.

Probably once we pass teen-hold and establish our first domicile, we start accumulating stuff. Add those beginnings to a lifetime and you can imagine what I'm looking at. I found "rabbit ears", a small indoor antenna which you used on top of your TV to give you just-adequate reception of free (not paid) channels. I wonder if the Smithsonian would like it. I'm looking at her childhood and mine, deciding what to throw, what to save. Through it all, I'm remembering the advice of a real estate agent: Be brutal. Realistic advice, though not comforting.

And why do I call this a "fantastic concession" on her part? Because at the end of life, many of the dying like things to stay as they always remembered them (two rooms she's put off-limits: her bedroom and the living room.) I suppose there is comfort if you are ending your days in the home you created. With away-hospice (that is, in a nursing home setting) this would be different but she's in home-hospice and soon this home may become just her view from her bed.

She has a fantastic social worker who is helping her transition from life to death. You may be thinking: What? You live, then you die. What transition? But apparently it's not that easy. The nurses, the social worker, the literature, all have told us she must accept her death because if she fights it, the time will be longer. A lot of hospice is on the spiritual side of living ("When god says it's your time." "Meeting loved ones in heaven.") but her team is savvy enough to know that DM believes in the spiritual but not the religious so they do not push what I think are their strong religious beliefs. Beliefs which even I, the atheist, understand may make the acceptance of death (the "peace that surpasses understanding") easier.

I've finally worked out an analogy for this non-acceptance of dying by a hospice patient. Think of the mom who sees her child pinned under a car and gets the adrenaline rush which allows her to pick up that load of tonnage and free him. Likewise, the unaccepting hospice patient is producing some type of hormonal rush; the mom uses it to do the impossible and lift a car, the dying patient uses it to do the impossible and stay alive.

I think DM is getting closer to letting go emotionally. Intellectually she let go months ago but her "heart" still doesn't hear fully what her brain is telling her. However, I would be wrong to say that counseling alone, albeit her SW is fantastic, is helping her.

Enter Zoloft, the anti-depressant which was firmly recommended from the get-go by hospice and resisted by us just as firmly. Until about a week ago. I felt Zoloft would only make her spacey and sleeping. Boy, was I wrong. (Though I'm sure other people have different reactions.) Her new calmness, her ability to talk about leaving her family behind without crying, her willingness to allow me to start pre-mortum what Dickinson described as "bustle in a house the morning after death", all can be attributed to this drug. Pharmaceuticals if used wisely, can be so beneficial as I'm seeing here. The obscene greed in the exorbitant cost of these same pharmaceuticals I'll rant about another day.

So we wait for what will be. And unexpectedly, in the middle of all this, cynical me experienced a generous act of kindness from a Ravelry designer. Brief history: just before hospice began, I signed up for a mystery shawl KAL (a knit-along where you get a clue a week, hence, the mystery.) Signed up and lost track of everything until yesterday when I took one last shot with a posting on Ravelry: Does anyone remember this free KAL or was I dreaming? Within minutes, I got my answer (yes, this KAL exists, but it's no longer free) and within hours, the designed contacted me: Yes, you did sign up when the KAL was free as a promotion so let me send you the pattern free. How nice. She didn't have to do this. And while I'm not going to get to knitting this for months I'm seeing this pattern as the light at the end of the tunnel for me; there is still kindness in the world.

Which brings me to the first stanza of a Yeats poem, The Second Coming. Many of us may look at the world today: ubiquitous financial crises, drum rolls for war, wacko-a-do Republicans in the US House, obvious climate change evidence decried and think: This time the sky is really falling. While not to diminish the fact that humans may be finally be walking into their species annihilation fuck-up, here's what Yeats wrote about the post WWI Europe:
 
Turning and turning in the widening gyre (spiral/vortex)
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

See you next week.

   
 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the King
Tax the Rich

 

Website Wednesday

 

Not a lot today because I'm exhausted from starting what is going to be a long trek ahead where I will be cleaning out/saving treasures from the home of one who is not yet dead. That's what makes hospice such a unique experience: the participants and his/her caretakers are looking into what may be a long tunnel to death. Depending on the illness, it's a heads-up call for getting your physical and emotional house in order. Most people hone in on the financial assets, the inheritable properties first, but there is another portion of the preparation which I mentioned above: getting rid of the stuff. And earlier this week, in a session with the social worker we worked out a rapprochement which I never expected but for which I am very grateful: DM is comfortable with me starting this cleaning process while she is alive and will even help me with decisions. (Another day I'll discuss the anti-depressant, Zoloft, which had been suggested by the hospice nurse from the get-go, has been just started, and is really making a visible change.)

So now that my "dead time" (waiting as a patient sleeps) is going to entail a lot of physical work, I'll apologize in advance for the paltry amount of website picks. Maybe by next week I'll find this extra work more manageable and less exhausting.

As I begin to look at all the "stuff" around here and think: Could I possibly save this and make something I could use? this pick seems perfect:

http://lifehacker.com/5922473/top-10-clever-hacks-for-things-you-thought-were-trash

 

I've used hacker picks before but this one seems more high-tech in some ways. Be sure to visit their home page:

http://lifehacker.com/

 

It's current and looks like there are a lot of helpful ideas like: How to Lock Down Facebook Privacy Now That Old Posts Are Searchable.

 

http://www.messynessychic.com/ also looks very promising but start with this story:

 

http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/02/18/found-at-auction-the-unseen-photographs-of-a-legend-that-never-was/

You'll be reading the story of Vivien Maier, photographer, and seeing her pictures. I'll say no more except that she was a true hidden gem.

OK, closer to home, I have to decorate two alcoves. I really don't like alcoves and need a lot of guidance so why don't you see what I'm looking at for inspiration:

http://www.houzz.com/alcove

There are a lot of alcove pages to browse here which I will love doing even if no inspiration pops forth. Be sure to click all around Houzz. This is a very neat site (both in the slang and cleanliness meaning.)

And finally, a long read. A disturbing read. A read which I can't say is unexpected in its content but so disturbing because it is another glimpse into the destructive and hateful nature of the human species. Are we, like Penny Patterson's gorillas (who lived so peacefully for 9 years but in the 10th engaged violent warfare among themselves), just naturally programmed for violence and hatred? We can sublimate it with sports or smother it with prayers, but is it always there waiting its turn to explode?

Read this, you won't be happy:

http://www.alternet.org/books/how-kill-goyim-and-influence-people

That's it for today. See you next week.