Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Movie Monday: The Lovely Bones directed by Peter Jackson
(contains spoilers but the movie really gives away the plot very early on)

More apologies for my dearth of Knitting Fridays. I just seem to be knitting but not blogging about it. Tonight is my Needlework Group and perhaps I'll pick up some ideas there.

On to the movie. You know you're having trouble with a movie when 1: you have to will yourself to sit through it because you want to blog about it. 2: You misread the running time as one and a half hours (it actually runs over 2 hours) and at 70 minutes into it all you're thinking is: Well, at least I have only 10 more minutes to watch this.

The Lovely Bones:a first-person narrative by a murdered girl who looks down on her grieving family and the killer.

Let me begin with what I liked:.......waiting.....waiting

Oh, the CGIs! No, they went on and on. Unlike Jackson's early Heavenly Creatures which had a lovely CGI section, TLB stretched all this loveliness (and some nastiness) on and on. Stop already! We get that WETA studios is cutting edge. Stop showing off! I know Jackson got the slew of Oscars for The Return of the King but I thought that last movie of the LOTR trilogy was his weakest since he was so enamored with his special effects that he only served up the human emotions among his characters as a side dish.

And that's a big problem in TLB. It's like: OK, here's a magical realism story about a child's murder and her grieving family, let's see how many special effects I can cram in.

Unless you're dealing with straight entertainment (Iron Man, Terminator, etc.), your movie will fall flat if you don't connect with your audience; if you don't have your audience make an investment in what they are watching.

And I made no investment in this film. I watched a narrative; I was never caught up in it. The acting didn't help but perhaps the script contributed to this.

Some issues I had: 1: Before Susie is killed, Ray, a typical student in a high school in PA - an English accented, well-dressed boy!!! - makes a date to meet her at the mall. After Susie is killed, Ray mourns her and writes a poem to her. What? They just met! 2: After Susie dies and her mother flees her grief-obsessed husband, floozy Grandma comes to live with the family. Played by Susan Sarandon (no acting light-weight), she struts through her scenes, cigarette smoking, full liquor glass in hand. All stereotypical of the Rake's Progress until her daughter returns and she appears sober as a judge. 3: Susie, now dead, "wills" her father not to accost her killer. Instead, dad winds up mistakenly accosting a girl at a lovers' tryst and is beaten to near death by her boyfriend who misinterprets the situation. This is protection from beyond? 4: At the end of the movie, when Susie is ready to finally enter heaven, she returns because there is one more thing she has to do on earth. OK, I'm thinking, she's going to help them catch her killer. No, she morphs into a living girl so Ray can give her one last (and presumably first) kiss. WTF????

Now I know that The Lovely Bones was a hot best-seller/reading group selection so I'm thinking: Jackson must have had pretty bad source material with which to work. I think it's safe to assume that some scenes were iconic to the book and he put them in for the fan base. I'm also thinking that I going to take a pass on Alice Sebold's writing based on this movie.

Even giving Jackson a pass because he had some "rules" he had to follow; I know that lousy lit can make great movies. Good acting helps. Except for Rachel Weisz as the distraught mom, I felt no empathy. I did feel excitement and suspense in a well-crafted scene (but also a typical suspense motif) when Susie's sister discovers evidence of the killer's guilt while the killer is ascending the stairs to confront her.

One commenter said about this movie: What a mess! That's it in three words.

I think this is the first movie I have reviewed here about which I feel so negative. I know I would have be kinder to a lesser director. But Peter Jackson should have known better.

Some trivia: Some of this movie was filmed in PA, not far from where I live. and in areas I've driven through too, too many times. I recognized at least one shot. Also, the development right across from me contains the houses Jackson used. One car garage splits built in the 1950s. Small rec rooms, small bedrooms, all around compact. I do think Jackson only used the exterior of these homes and when the audience went into they were in a different floor plan.

And, one final question: As I remember it, once Lindsey runs off with the killer's journal, he leaves town with the safe (containing Susie's body) from his basement in the car. Even assuming, he didn't leave immediately: how did he ever get that safe up the cellar stairs and into the car - alone?

Edit: I'm starting to read the reviews of the book. Wow! I guess now my question is: I read that Jackson really wanted to make this book into a movie and owned the rights for some time. Why?

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Website Wednesday and Multiplication

First, a word about math. Last week, we had a boil water alert and I was checking the local TV channels for information. (Only a local rag, The Trentonian, had online info though I think they were implying the problem was politically motivated.)

In my channel clicking, I came upon a presentation (didn't catch it but she was probably the Curriculum Director) to our local Board of Education re: the complaints about the math curriculum from parents and teachers. Well, the good news is that they know the problem; the bad news is it may take years to fix.

Which leads me to an extra website for you this Wednesday:

http://www.multiplication.com/

Now, the boy is in the fourth grade and still hasn't picked up the entire multiplication table. God knows, I've tried every teaching trick with him but he just can't commit it to memory (and this kid has a memory like a steel trap - if it goes in, it doesn't come out.)

Then, in one of those Eureka moments I thought: What about those BBC education sites I used to play with him when he was still light enough to sit on my lap.

I didn't use those sites but I did find the one listed above. I clicked on "Games" and we have been sailing along for over a week.

Here's what I did:

1. I reviewed about 30 multiplication games and picked out about 22 which were suitable. (It's not a good idea to use timed tests or those where you move the cute cartoon character to catch the right answer in a basket - too stressful.)
2. I picked out games which had short rewards after each section (a Mario-type game; a painting scene, etc.)
3. I used only one times table at a time starting with times 2.
4. I sit with him for the 15 - 20 minutes he plays the games, not giving him hints but sometimes saying the answer after he clicks it.
5. After he is proficient in a times table I test him verbally (2 -x 9 = ?) and with a worksheet.

You probably realized from #4 that these are multiple choice games. I think this takes the stress out of the exercise.

The results: He has times 2 and times 3 tables down pat! I know, you say: So what? But it is a big deal. Forget that the U.S. is losing the race in higher math to the rest of the world; we're losing it in lower math. We, parents, have to take the small victories where we find them.

Check on the Multiplication.com site; there's a lot of learning there.

And now on to my regular pick for Website Wednesday:

http://www.mentalfloss.com/

I can't believe I missed this site. Remember, how your ancestors used to turn on the TV in the morning and watch Morning Shows? Well, Mental Floss in a web Morning Show. Today, under Morning Cup Of Links, you have the news of the Chilean miners with a live feed. (They're bringing them out alive! Go Chile!) You have a diagram on how cut a bagel so it links. They have cats which talk when they eat. (So there, Mom! I can talk while I chew my food!)

Check out 10 Amazing Costumes for Halloween. They are amazing, and spooky, and gross.

Need some mental stuff. Check out Amazing Facts, Trivia and Quizzes.

The About says:

For the record: mental_floss magazine is an intelligent read, but not too intelligent. We're the sort of intelligent that you hang out with for a while, enjoy our company, laugh a little, smile a lot and then we part ways. Great times. And you only realize how much you learned from us after a little while. Like a couple days later when you're impressing your friends with all these intriguing facts and things you picked up from us, and they ask you how you know so much, and you think back on that great afternoon you spent with us and you smile.

And then you lie and say you read a lot.

And that about sums it up. Grab your coffee and that linking bagel you just made and enjoy.

Final note: As I'm scrolling through the Mental Floss site I'm getting such strong deja vu vibes. I can't believe I didn't use this on another Website Wednesday. So, even though my "Find" in Word Perfect didn't discover this on my list of sites used (Yes, I keep a list and I'm amazed it's such a long list) I scrolled through all the sites the old-fashioned way - using my eyes. And, I still didn't find this site. Could it have changed its names? Did I use just a section of the site another Wednesday?

Oh well, whatever. It's worth a first visit or a repeat visit.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Movie Monday: Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Cheri (2009)

I'm reading more and more about the mess the Democrats are in as they face the mid-term Congressional elections. To put the blame on one man is really silly in a representative government but it is in keeping with Truman's desk sign of "The Buck Stops Here." I think I'd trace to origin of the problem to Obama's refusal to understand from the get-go that in a poisonous political climate (which we have now and have had plenty of times in U.S. history) you take no prisoners. Now, bullies understand this all the time as witnessed in the the antics of our NJ Gov. Unfortunately, reasoned, intelligent people see the world as it really is, a "darkling plain" we all share, and try to act rationally and inclusive. It looks like, once again, it ain't going to work.

But I did see two movies in the last week which are separated by almost 50 years: Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Cheri (2009.) SITG has been on TV so many times but amazingly, I only saw it last week. And, it is very, very good. I really don't like movies from the 1960s and 1970s, though I guess you could rattle off a boatload of classics from those decades. I just think that movies from that time were more to be seen than felt, admired not empathized with.

But reaching back almost 50 years, I felt the agony of Wilma's (Natalie Wood)despair when teenage lust (probably hardwired in all of us for the propagation of the species) ran into the wall of the "good girl" model of the times. That one scene (probably played out so, so many times in teen girls' fantasy ) where Wilma walks with Bud (Warren Beatty) through the halls of the school as lower middle-class, pretty girl and super rich, handsome jock. Wood captures the joy (I'm with him!) and the confusion (Why does he like me?) perfectly.

Neither Wilma nor Bud get what they want in life and both must live with the regrets and move on. Wilma pays a severe, immediate consequence but it is Bud who must endure a more permanent "fall from grace."

Go see this movie and then take a look at modern day angst-filled teen love movies. It's worth the comparison.

And also, there is Cheri. First, what a brave actress Michelle Pfeiffer is. She is a physically beautiful actress who could easily look much younger than her 50+ years, but she plays the older woman in Cheri and in the last scenes, she allows the camera to portray that age starkly. Second, Rupert Friend. I like Rupert Friend. I consider him an Orlando Bloom who can act. I liked him as Albert in The Young Victoria and was pleasantly surprised to read that he was Ludovic in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. He plays a young, pampered, kept young man in Cheri with a believable emotional depth the role must have.

The plot of Cheri? When I read about modern day "cougar" romance, I want to gag. Old women and young men. Ewwww! (I feel probably more strongly about young women and old men.) I get the lust; I just haven't figured out the frame of reference for conversations. (OK, I'm naive; you say, What conversation?)

I mention this because I came upon Cheri as just a sexual romp between an experienced courtesan and the 19-year old son of another courtesan; a relationship which lasts 6 years. I've heard of these affairs before; classic lit is full of them But at the end of Cheri, at the bitter end when they, like Wood and Beatty in SITG, must part, I really did understand that the societal view on age can be transcended by love. As the narrator says: Lea was born too soon.

Take a look at both these movies. Separated by almost 50 years; acted so well; both telling similar stories; I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Website Wednesday

I thought about changing my banner from time to time but I decided that like "Carthage must be destroyed" which Cato (from memory, have to check that name again) said in every Roman Senate speech till it was, it will probably take a very long time before the Western world takes a long, hard look at the downside of capitalism.

Enough of the soap box. No Movie Monday because it was a traveling day and almost a "being wiped out on the Garden State Parkway because the guy is the right lane was texting, driving and swerving" day. I did learn that when you see a guy in the slow lane going a really, really "this guy must be passed" slow it is not necessarily that Pops is driving but rather some asshole who thinks that slow driving means you can text on the device you hold on your lap. What a putz!

I do have some good websites today. First, an easy one, just for fun:

http://blastr.com/

This is a product of the SyFy Network which has changed from a great Saturday Mystery Science Theater morning network to a parade of original movies which should really be parodied on the now defunct MST.

Blastr seems to be mainly movie news (like articles about The Hobbit - a movie about short people (hobbits) and even shorter people (dwarfs) which is going to take all the magic of Peter Jackson to "stand tall." There are also some games on this site, some of which don't need registration.

Take a look at it for fun, and movie information.

Now, with my second choice I'm returning to my "happy place" - lists:

http://www.smashinglists.com/

OK, you say: Lists, that should be the fun pick. But Smashing Lists isn't. There are some of your typical lists like best movies or cars but even those come with interesting blurbs. If they think Die Hard is the best action movie, they'll tell you why.

Once you get beyond the easy stuff, it really gets interesting: the oldest photographs, flowers that bloom on at night, the first timekeeping devices, or amazing tricks to play with your brain (you may be interested in downloading the 18000 Hz Sine Wave - I have no idea what I just wrote!)

That last item triggered the thought: Who's writing this stuff? How accurate are their facts?

Unfortunately, my feeble detective skills could find no "About Us" on the site so I engaged my Google skills and this is what I discovered:

From Alexa at http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/smashinglists.com:

Smashinglists.com's three-month global Alexa traffic rank is 24,739. The site's visitors view 1.3 unique pages each day on average. Relative to the overall population of internet users, the site's users tend to be under the age of 35, and they tend to be childless Caucasians and men browsing from home who have no postgraduate education. Visitors to the site spend about 85 seconds on each pageview and a total of two minutes on the site during each visit, and Smashinglists.com has a bounce rate of approximately 78% (i.e., 78% of visits consist of only one pageview).

How do they find out this stuff? I'm a childless, Caucasian male apparently. Or I have the tastes of a childless, Caucasian male. You learn something new every day.

Technorati at http://technorati.com/blogs/www.smashinglists.com says:

Smashing Lists is an entertainment as well as educational blog compiling the top 10 lists on various topics ranging from lifestyle to entertainment, science and technology.

But outside of one site saying they are located in Texas, I'm not getting a handle on "who makes them." (There are a few hyperlinks of "Source" with some of their lists.) However, I know I'm impressed with the Sine Wave blurb and their Flesch reading ease score seems about a senior in high school level.

So take a look at my two choices this week and plan to spend some time with Smashing Lists; it can be addictive.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Knitting Friday - on Thursday

What a first! I got my camera and I took my first (really third) picture of this cotton black sweater. What a choice! Black, which photographs so well! Its a top down sweater done in a simple pattern of four rows of stockinette and one row of *YO, K2tog*. I started with US 8 needles and a cast on of 80 stitches. I worked about 6 rows of seed because it makes an instant buttonhole without making the dreaded buttonhole.

Once I was through the neck border, I changed to US 10.5 and doubled every stitch, excluding the each side 5 seed stitch front border, to 150 stitches. I think I increased even more stitches in the next K row (Row 3) because I wanted to be sure I had enough stitches for the sleeves.

I think you know the drill for this pattern (just look at earlier posts.) It's my typical top-down sweater/pullover/tank top/; you name it.

This is the first sweater I've ever gotten a compliment on. I was knitting and wearing it, and someone said "Did you make that jacket?" It took me a second to realize she was talking to me, probably because I thought I made a sweater, but whatever.

This is one of those sweaters which could get very little use (except that black gets a lot of use just because of the color) since it's not very warm and not very cool. We'll see.

I'm helping a neighbor make a Christmas stocking. I pulled out some I made - four in total - but I don't have an idea as to how I made any of them. This should be an interesting helping project.

Knitty really had nothing in their new fall issue which grabbed me. I'm trying to finish up UFOs and also lose weight for this bar mitzvah. I think the weight loss is going to win.

You'll probably notice that I changed my blog template. I think blue is peaceful and with US elections coming up I don't feel that peaceful.

Got to go and take more pictures; and better pictures. Even I know my first try was pretty lousy. Practice may make perfect.

Happy knitting.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Website Wednesday

No Knitting Friday last week because my camera has been shipped but not arrived and I'm determined that my next KF will have great pictures; no Movie Monday because that was newsletter prep day and I worked from dawn to dusk (though I did have 3 movies to discuss) and now, a Website Wednesday which I think most people will skip because it's POETRY!

Now, why would I choose a poetry site? And not a famous poetry site (well, not yet) at that? Well, because I love poetry. Not for itself in that I will agonize through Shelley and his ilk. (Though I do recognize their brilliance.) But because sometimes, many times, it's the poetic turn of a phase which can reach into and connect with your soul (and I mean your philosophical, not religious being.) For example, Pity me that the heart is slow to learn // What the swift mind beholds at ever turn. which is the ending of Millay's poem. Or the anti-war poems of Sassoon (The rank stench of those bodies haunts me still // And I remember things I'd best forget.), Brooke, and others. The greatest prose literature in the world can't hold a candle.

So take a look at this modern poetry site:

http://hellopoetry.com

where poems are submitted, critiqued privately, and then made available to the entire web world. To its readers and submitters it says:

Welcome to Hello Poetry: Read and discuss classic and contemporary poems with the community. All for free, with no advertisements. Do you write poetry?: Submit your work and get feedback from a community of writers. And when you're ready, you can create and sell your own books in our Bookshop.

I can't promise you the brilliant work of the masters but look for that poetic gem which will grab your mind. I bet it's there.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Website Wednesday

OK, I've spent the early hours of today looking for online geometry for elementary school. A lot of worksheets are out there but not much on the explanation side. The boy is being introduced to geometry big time in the 4th grade. I remember working with the girl in that grade but back then I remember just vandalizing magazines for geometric shapes. Now, we are starting with pure math with questions such as: Is a rhombus ever a square? How would I know? No one ever taught me that!

Finally after countless clicks, I found a math.com page which even has a Venn diagram to explain all this.

My goal in life is to have the time to finally study and understand math; and remember it. The remembering is the big problem. I have a huge Fundamentals of Mathematics book which I must I have studied all the way through since I have notes on every page. But don't ask me how much I remember; I would just start crying.

But I do love math - and movies, so my website pick today is a movie site. Not a picture movie site but a reading one:

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/

Film School Rejects says of itself:

Film School Rejects is the movie blog you've been waiting for. The ultimate commentary track on what's happening in Hollywood, FSR combines the freshest voices on the web and a swagger all its own to provide the best reviews, interviews and industry news coverage to millions of unique visitors from around the world every month.

OK, so maybe there's some hyperboles in that quote but you get some very good critical writing at FSR. I may not always agree with the reviews but they are well thought out and presented. And, what's so important is that these guys/gals know film construction. I might grouse about the length of the "sinking ship" scene in Sherlock Holmes but they know all about tracking shot lengths and explain how things are done in Hollywoodland.

You won't get stuff like: "and the main character was so cute I wanted to take him home" but a real look at the nuts and bolts of film making wrapped in very good expository and narrative writing.

So take a look at FSR; you won't be disappointed.

Final note: I will never agree that Memento is the best film of the decade (The 30 Best Films of the Decade) because I will never sit through this depressing movie again to figure out what I missed.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Movie Monday

Well, I should be getting a camera (my very own) pretty soon and I think I'll be able to figure out uploading pictures to the computer and therefore my Knitting Fridays won't be so lame and sporadic. Plus, some pictures of Miss M!

Krugman has a good column in the NYT this a.m. I don't think it will change hearts and minds but it's nice to know that you're not the only Cassandra out there.

HBO introduced a new series this weekend, Boardwalk Empire. I don't think I'll be tuning in (the basic reason, I don't subscribe) but because of this we got HBO free so I got to see Sherlock Holmes directed by Guy Ritchie.

Interesting movie. As usual, the special effects and CGI were a tad too long. I swear they must pay for these pyrotechnics by the full hour and they all plan to squeeze every damn penny out of it. Where's a good editor, with clout, when you need him/her? OK, the very large villain speaking French was pretty novel but he plummeted Holmes and Watson to near-death long minutes before the director called "cut." Boring!

I think American movie schizophrenia is becoming even more pronounced (which sounds like an impossibility) as the technology advances. In this movie, you have some interesting points from classic Sherlock Holmes lore such as Irene Adler (spelled Irene but pronounced Irenee - something this movie missed); the origin of Moriarty (not from the canon, but interesting); and Holmes and Watson's relationship. This is all mixed in with the seemingly-endless pyrotechnics that only adolescent boys and those men whose emotional growth ended at this age love so much. Do even quality directors today have to be stuck in a thinking man's Terminator mode? Bad things can happen to your hero but if you want to keep any semblance of reason and reality in your movie, you can't have lethal bad things occur. Lethal bad things kill your hero; unless you're filming in la-la land.

This movie dances around the modern day query: Were Holmes and Watson lovers? I say "modern day query" because if you read enough Victorian era lit you'll find a sub-vein of homo-eroticism. Just read some of Bleak House where the two heroines are talking (or Dickens is talking about them) to see what I mean. I think this may have just been that period's style of writing.

Additionally, I say "modern query" because I don't remember hearing these "rumors" until the Gay movement gained ground and I can't remember ever having that this thought when reading Doyle. I think you can say that Doyle never went there.

But Ritchie does and what I get from the dialogue between Holmes and Watson (as Watson is getting ready to marry his Mary) is that whatever the relationship was, Watson is ready to move on while Holmes is still needy.

There's a lot less mention of Holme's drug use in this movie though Holmes never appears less than seedy throughout the movie.

I like Rachel Mcadams as a actress (I think she saves The Time Traveller's Wife) and her large role as Irene doesn't drag down the story. Though, did we really need the PC at the end where Holmes and Watson take a plummeting to keep the bad guys at bay while Irene figures out and implements the solution to keep all Parliament members from being gassed to death?

The plot of this movie is rather wacky and, not to give any thing away, until the end I thought that Madonna's Kabul beliefs had strongly influenced Richie. But I should have had faith in Holmes.

A final word about Downey and Law (Holmes and Watson): We have a much more robust, take-charge Watson here and both actors contribute so well to their roles that for the first time I could believe this might have been close to Doyle's vision before Hollywood so early on (1920s?) made Watson the bumbling sidekick.

Verdict: Definitely worth a Netflix rental.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Website Wednesday

I was reading the introduction to the ancient Greek section of The Norton Anthology of World Literature (great fast reading while drying your hair - I can get in about two pages) and the anonymous writer described the absolutely unbridgeable chasm between the Greek religious paradigm and the Judeo-Christian one. It's a fantastic, concise, clear explanation of the gods-who-are-fallible system of belief and the god-who-must-be-infallible system.

Reading this, I realized how existential the Greeks were with their gods. This was a completely new thought for me. I have a neighbor in this community who is an archaeologist and is writing a book on the Greek religious system. I wonder what she would think about all this.

So in honor of existentialism (which we all live under but few care to acknowledge) I thought I would, yet again, post a photo website:

http://www.vivapixel.com

Pictures make you think; make you happy; make you sad. There's instant mini-mini movies.

Vivapixel doesn't tell you a lot about itself. It seems to be a place for photo storage; membership is free; and you do get guidelines, like no copyright infringement allowed.

I'll admit that I'm a little in the dark about site navigation here. Click on the above link and you get albums of interesting with many of the slightly white bread variation. (I do love this one, if it's not photo-shopped:)

http://www.vivapixel.com/photo/10966

But once you click one of these ten albums on the home page, you're able to click on "Explore" and enter a world of so many more albums of pictures. This selection get interesting; many are cleverly-captioned and can range from mildly to grossly offensive - be warned.

So whatever you're relationship to photos, whether you like to ponder, chuckle, or just indulge your desire for REM, enter Vivapixel for a very interesting ride.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Knitting Friday

I sort of have this guilty conscience because I've been remiss with posting Knitting Fridays - not that I haven't been knitting up a storm.

My feeble excuse is, as always, that I'm a lousy picture taker and my "good" picture taker has been very busy. However, I finally figured out a present for Christmas (which is rather lame coming from an atheist, but, hey, a grab for a gift is a grab for a gift, whatever your beliefs.) We have a friend who takes pictures at all our social events with a small Canon camera. It's the one where you can see your picture on a 3" x 5" screen because you snap the shot. She gets excellent pictures all the time and I've decided that I can do that - not get excellent pictures but use a 3" x 5" viewing screen so I shoot the people and not the sky. Therefore once I get this camera, the last trick I'll have to learn is how to upload the pictures to the computer.

But at this moment, I'm without pictures and just writing a mea culpa post.

I finished up my black lace shawl for the bar mitzvah and was just about to block it when I noticed an error half way back. Now, this is a simple pattern:

Row 1: Sl1P *YO, K2tog* K1
Row 2: Sl1P *YO, P2tog* K1
Row 3: Sl1P *K* K1
Row 4: Sl1P *P* K1

How simple can you get with lace? You don't even need a pattern for this if you mark the right side. (From the RS: if every other stitch on the needle is a YO - they look diagonal - your next row is Row 3. If from the RS, all stitches on the needle are even, the next row is Row 1. From the WS: just duplicate the row on the needle using either the Row 2 or Row 4 directions.) Simplicity itself, unless you get careless and work Row 1 & 2 again for Row 3 & 4. You get four rows of lace which is not that noticeable until you put the black shawl on a light surface. (If you goof with 4 rows of stockinette, you usually pick that up fast - that is noticeable, even with black.)

So I ripped the shawl back by half but I was smart enough this time to mark the last part of the yarn. Right now, I'm coming up to that marker so I know I'm about ready to bind off again.

I love Knit Picks lace and fingering. This one is in fingering and it's so airy but so warm. I'm hoping whatever the weather at the end of October, this will work.

My other big project is a top-down cardi/shrug in black cotton. This was the cotton I originally bought because I didn't have a black summer shawl. Well, this summer was just too hot to wear any shawl outside and stores seem to have realized that AC is very expensive so except for my clubhouse (we must be made of money) most inside places are not freezers this summer. I decided my small black cotton shawl would work fine and this yarn could be used for an open black cardigan, which I will use a lot more.

I wish I had a "hot" pattern for linking but nothing has inspired me lately. I am taking some of that crazy fun yarn which Dollar Tree was selling a few years ago, and which I bought of copiously, and making a top down pullover.

And I promise at least one knitting picture next week.

Happy knitting.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Website Wednesday

The first day of school in our district; Google is reporting that the Democrats don't even have enough voters to beat the Republicans in the 2010 election; and there was a helicopter with a spotlight searching our detention basin for quite a while last night. (My money is on an escaped criminal dressed as a deer - he/she would blend right in.)

So in honor of kids everywhere, Americans who are being royally screwed by our capitalism and our stupidity and those fleeing the law (don't forget, not everyone chased is guilty), I offered some learning, a lot of clever fun and some learning mixed with clever fun at:

http://theoatmeal.com/

The home page of The Oatmeal consists of small posters saying things like: Why I hate Cobwebs; Hamster Atonement; Six Reasons to Ride a Polar Bear to Work. Click any poster, say the polar bear one, and you'll be reading funny reasons: polar bears keep you warm and actual facts: polar fur is actually composed of individual hollow tubes. You get all this information in clever cartoon panels. Sort of mini-mini graphic novels,

Some posters are great learning tools for kids like When to Use i.e. in a Sentence, but this is an adult site so monitoring would be advised.

The site says about itself:

Everything on this site was written, drawn, and coded by Matthew Inman.
The Oatmeal's real name is Matthew and he lives in Seattle, Washington. He subsists on a steady diet of crickets and whiskey. He enjoys long walks on the beach, gravity, and breathing heavily through his mouth. His dislikes include scurvy, typhoons, and tapeworm medication.

By clicking Inman's name, we learn he is "a 27 year old web designer, developer, and online marketer."

Matthew is cleverly talented. We may all be saying in time: Matt Inman? I read him before he got so famous.

Take a look. You won't be disappointed. Oh, and don't forget to click the top bar options: Comics, Quizzes, Blog, etc.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Website Wednesday: Sort Of

This is going to be a quick posting since I'm really wiped out. This weekend was newsletter prep time and our September issue is our annual list of lists: clubs, committees, municipal contacts, utility contacts, etc. - you get the picture. Making it more stressful was the fact that my staff had other commitments: Paris for one; babysitting for the other. They helped as they could but with the newsletter and two fliers to prep, I was frazzled.

And then...... During a typical reading time with the kids, I picked up Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. I've owned this book for some time. I think I picked it up at a Border's "hurt" sale and it's been eying me for a few years now but I've resisted the urge to pick it up. But I must have been desperate this afternoon and I started reading. Wow!

Gravity's Rainbow has been listed by Penguin Books as one of the best books of the 20th century. I agree. This book is what Ulysses by Joyce should have been for me but wasn't. This book is how literature should be written. I guess you can tell this book has just blown me away.

Now, I've read great literature all my life and I'm particularly addicted to different translations of Homer's two epics. and Russian novels. I'm not a fan of the Oprah lit and that's probably the reason this fairly modern, (1973), 776-page post-modernistic tome has sat unread and unloved on my shelves. I was mistaken, this is not Oprah lit in "feel good, poignant message, easy reading" glory; the only comparison to her choices is that it's a fairly modern book.

It's not an easy read. (It has an active cult following with websites which identify the masses of characters and the situations in which they find themselves.) Originally, I read 11 pages with minimal comprehension except for the fact that I knew I was reading something great. So I plowed back over those pages, even read some sections aloud, and now I'm so hooked I think my days of light reading (and those days were always pretty sparse) are gone for good.

Now, I'm only on page 25 and I can't imagine that Pynchon can keep up this pace through 700 pages but I'm so willing to plow through. I think I have a masterpiece here.

Note: Amazon sells the book. Right after the book listing are two entries for "companions" to the book. However, the Internet is rich with Gravity's Rainbow analysis and that's for free.

Enjoy.