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.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Movie Monday

This was going to be a blog about Avatar which I saw last week. It's a visually stunning movie which really captures the meaning of "move" in movies. It soooo beats out Titanic since the love scenes are played out in graphic novel picture style and I didn't have to sit through that miserable hokey, unbelievable, stereotypical fairy tale tripe found in Titanic.

More of Avatar next week though. I want to see it again because some stuff just had to be explained to me (I am thick) and that took away from total comprehension (I am really thick.)

I did see Surrogates with Bruce Willis and James Cameron reprising his I,Robot role with a twist. I have no idea of the critical reception to this movie but I liked it. The premise is that humans have robotic surrogates whom they send out to live their lives while they stay home in a special sleeping chamber. Ugly humans can be roaming the city as beautiful people; old humans can have young surrogates; you get the picture. The glitch comes when a surrogate is killed and this also kills his "human."

This is a derivative of Asimov's 3 rules of robotics in that human death should never occur this way. Somehow the fail-safe protecting humans is disturbed and the movie has Willis, an FBI agent, investigating this crime(s), first in his surrogate form and then in his human form.

Of course, it's fantasy, but it's good fantasy. The writers were kind enough to explain plot points; you learn something at the start of the movie which you need for believability at the end of the movie.

You do have your obligatory car chases; your CGI stunts, your over-the-top plummeting of the hero (in real life, the guy would be dead), but you also have some interesting human and ethical dilemmas. The Willis character is carrying some heavy traumatic baggage and the ending leads you to think: Would I have made the same decision?

So it's part action hero saving the world but with some interesting thinking components. I'd even say that it could bring about some interesting dialogue between teens and their parents regarding the virtual reality world crowding in on human existence.

Definitely worth a Netflix pick.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Thoughts on Thursday

Apparently, the NJ GOV Chris Christie really fucked up the NJ application for the $400 million in "Race to the Top" educational funds. He didn't fill out a question properly! Jesus H. Christ!

Now the fine Machiavellian hand of the GOV is all over this application that failed since he personally made political capital by rejecting the first application drawn up with the input of the NJEA ("We don't deal with no stinking unions."), and by publicly humiliating his NJ Education Department Commissioner, Bret Schundler, for even trying to work with the teachers' union on this application.

The GOV has admitted he made a clerical error (well, I'm sure he's not taking the blame personally since he's hiring a second person to check these applications in the future!!!!!!!) but, hey, it's really all Obama's fault because the U.S. Department of Education will not let him say "Sorry." and get to play "do over." [Added 8/27, check the NJ Star Ledger web site for 8/26 where you see the videotape of the NJ application hearing in DC. NJ was asked during their DC presentation about the missing information on the application. The federal official is very kind and since NJ doesn't seem to have the info at hand says: Perhaps we can come back to that. (Which they do and still NJ can't produce the needed information.) Wow! There's a videotape! Who's liar, liar, pants on fire now? (Sorry, I can copy the link but I can't paste it. Weird.)]

It doesn't surprise me that Christie plays the blame-everyone-but-me game. I watched a clip of him doing it on Reporter's Round table last week. It was a different issue but the mantra was the same: It's Obama's fault. It's the administration's fault. (Never his administration, of course.) It's everyone else's fault.

Shit happens. We all know that. However, the NJ GOV wanted his carbon footprint alone on this application. He fought to get it there and he did. So he screws up and Jersey gets the shaft. Hubris is a bitch.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Website Wednesday

Everyone knows that I'm a sucker for pictures. Probably I heard that trite saying: A picture is worth a thousand words too early in my development and I got imprinted (I know, Twilight fans, I won't go there.)

This is the site I didn't post last week:

http://www.pixcetera.com/blog/2009/12/25/the-decade-in-pictures/

because I felt it was such a downer. And it is.

It's a decade of world pictures where, for the most part, you get to see the inhumanity committed man on man. It's sad and discouraging. The opening caption to the pictures says: A close look prompts one to think about the growing complexities in the world one lives in.

You have to come away from these pictures with your own take on optimism; it doesn't give you any.

Although the second and third pictures show the World Trade Center (NYC) on 9/11/01, this is not an anti-Muslim screed (how refreshing!)

Scroll down for an infamous Abu Gharib photo; scroll further for death and destruction in all forms.

The last shot - the scowling child and the sturdy dog looking into the camera - say, to my imagination, The world may be a shithole but we're here to stay. We'll survive.

Surprisingly, when I clicked on Galleries on the top bar, I got sent to your typical assortments of pictures: Fashion, Travel, Movies, etc. Worth a look but nothing spectacular.

But scroll through A Decade in Pictures. Read the captions. Do some thinking. Not every learning experience can be fun.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Movie Monday

A rather dry Movie Monday. I did finally hear the end of the two (yes, only two) chapter Thing in the Attic by Blish. (It's on LibriVox.) It's a sci-fi short story which I've been listening to for over three weeks. No, I'm not a slow listener; I keep falling asleep.

Now, LibriVox is great because you only get to hear a chapter at a time so, if you fall asleep, you don't miss much. However, you can miss it often and I've lost count as to how many times I've awakened to the black screen on the computer and no sound in the earpiece. I finally beat the system yesterday though; after once again sleeping through the ending the night before, I listened to it when I awakened in the morning. It worked; I heard the ending, but just barely, I noticed my eyes closing.....

Thing in the Attic is an interesting sci-fi. Not your full-bodiced damsel in distress sci-fi and not your dreary polemic about human future; but a thinking man's take on the ageless question: What lies beyond?

Unfortunately, the only movie I sat through this week (outside of my knitting companions: HP and the......, 2012, and Angels and Demons, was Flawless (2008) with Demi Moore and Michael Caine.

What a dry, flat movie, a caper movie with no panache, a "figure out why" movie where you finally shout: I DON'T CARE containing one piece of revisionist history that annoyed the hell out of me.

The movie takes place in the 1960s and Moore plays the only female lower executive in the London Diamond Corporation. She realizes she has reached the glass ceiling early on and Caine, as the old, but brilliant, janitor asks her if she wants to help him steal the diamonds. (Now, this diamond company is the place from which all the world's diamonds originate. We're talking diamonds lying around like dandruff.)

We get your typical plot points: Will she help him? Why is he doing this? Will they get caught? Unfortunately, too soon, this question forms in our mind: Who the hell cares?

Michael Caine can add panache to any role. As one commenter said: Even when he's phoning in a role, he's interesting. Moore, however, disappears behind her costume of 1960s' perfect grooming and behavior. People forget the start of the 1960s was Andy Hardyville; it was only as the decade advanced did the hipness happen.

Moore plays it pre-Woodstock and she plays it historically accurate but oh so dull. It's as if the coiffed hair, the traditional suit, the black high heels just swallowed up any spontaneity in her acting.

However, I said in the beginning that it was the revisionist history which really turned me off this movie. OK, it was sort of dropped after a big splash at the beginning but it had a souring effect.

The movie begins with protests in London against blood diamonds. Now, the movie starts in our present time so at first I thought this protest was current and accurate. But this protest was supposed to be happening in the 1960s! No way. Just google "blood diamonds" and read the time line. They are just plain wrong. And this grated on me.

Combine this with the angst Moore feels for her lack of professional opportunities (Did women really have this feminist awareness in the early 1960s?) and I felt like I was watching a one-of-a-kind PC robbery caper. And, that's not meant as a compliment. Caper movies have to be fast-paced, witty, light on their feet, not vetted by the UN Human Rights Commission and NOW.

Then, tack on the the completely out-of-left-field social conscience ending: You must do good for the world, and I was left with one loud: Huh?

So I guess you can say for this movie we have blood diamonds as the beginning bookend, a boring caper movie in the middle, and a challenge to all successful women to do good as the end bookend. Dullsville!

OK, my job for next week is to find a movie I like. Avatar has arrived from Netflix. Hated Cameron's Titanic (not the ship, the plot) but I'm going to be optimistic.

See you next week.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Website Wednesday (which is technically less than 4 hours past Wednesday)

Why am I up at this early, early morning hour? Because Verizon changed my TV package and random 2 a.m. channel surfing (yes, 2 a.m. is my first "bright-eyed and bushy tailed" wake-up time which is probably not bad for a borderline insomniac) brought up a channel in black which announced that I couldn't watch it because I was not subscribed to that channel.

Well sweetie, I definitely was subscribed as I watched it at 8 p.m. last night. Long story short: I knew Verizon was changing the line-up today so I got up, went to their web site and read the line-up changes. And, that's why I'm up. (Turns out, my channel is not among the deleted ones - they are so mixed up.)

I had planned a fantastic photo site for this Website Wednesday with a decade of pictures, some of the WTC on 9/11 which I had never seen. But it was a real emotional-downer site and after the controversy in the USA re: the Islamic center in NYC, I decided to wait and perhaps talk about that brouhaha before I posted the website.

So, here's a worthy alternate which should keep you occupied well into the future:

http://www.dmoz.org/

I learned this about them from their up-to-date blog:

Since 1998, the Open Directory Project has been the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a passionate, global community of volunteer editors.

I learned this from their "About."

Join the Open Directory Project
1. Find a category that you would like to maintain.
2. Follow the Become an Editor link at the top of the category page.
Note that some categories do not have a Become an Editor link; you should find a more specific category which interests you, and apply there. Once you have joined, and gained some experience, you can apply for more general categories.

Wow! Universal learning where you can take an active part in the contents provided! No, this is not Wikipedia's older brother since it's website-based.

Clicking through these websites is like walking in fields of wheat. It's never-ending. You go from one website to another; one topic to another; one language to another......

I'm not going to comment on the accuracy of all the information but from what I clicked, Open Directory contains some very substantial websites. This is well-worth the bookmark for many future visits.

Final note: I remember this site from its inception over 10 years ago. Way before the proliferation of game sites on the web, this site offered a listing of online games. It was one of the first sites I bookmarked for that purpose.

Enjoy.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Movie Monday - Zombieland, Hollywoodland and women who follow the movies

First, I thought I would pass on a bit of true information in this escalating war of words against the Muslim cultural center to be built near the now defunct World Trade Center. It's going to be built on the site of one of the city's most holy sites - a former Burlington Coat Factory store. The horror!

Try to chill, people. This is another issue akin to the grandfather in the Invisible Man saying: The white man always has us chasing our tails.

We have really serious issues to resolve in this country dealing with the poor and unemployed vs. the rich and privileged. I shudder to think that this smoke screen of good old American's bigotry could decide some 2010 elections.

But on a happier note: WTF is big-money Hollywood saying about the role of young women in society today when they put them in movies?

Now, some indies nail young women right on. I liked Adventureland. Kristen Stewart's character makes some bad choices and while she ends the movie on an upbeat note, you see the arc of her development so the quasi-happy ending works.

But Zombieland? I finally revisited that movie and I'm still rooting for the zombies to finish off those sisters. What stupid people! In the land of zombies, they trick the two male humans who could help them - not once, but twice.

What's with that lame mission they're on: to reach a really neat amusement park so the younger sister will have some fun in this world filled with zombies! And then, on arrival, they turn on every light and musical device which is a siren song to battalions of zombies who descend on them.

OK, I get it; this is really a horror movie. But are these two twits what Hollywood envisions as the take-charge modern female? They're just a variation of the previous Hollywood female twit who stood there screaming and watching her hero get plummeted by the bad guy.

Which brings me back to the Twilight saga because I think I've found the answer to Hollywood's unrealistic treatment of women while reading the postings on Twilight Lexicon: http://forum.twilightlexicon.com/

First, this is a really good site for anyone who is addicted to the Twilight saga. It's well moderated and even if you think the Twilight books are poorly written, questions are posted here which have these Twilight fans discussing some deep philosophical thoughts - and, of course, some pretty simple thoughts also.

But what really strikes me is the romantic devotion so many of the posters have to the over-the-top relationship between Bella and Edward. (Or, for Team Jacob members, the relationship of Bella and Jacob.) Cripes, one guy's a vampire; the other is a shape-shifter! However, they both do adore Bella. I'd take a dollar for every time I read someone post they would love to trade places with Bella. Wow! I really understand this feeling from adolescent girls; there may ever be a primal trigger which activates this heart-racing, idealized love at a certain age. It's the stuff young girls' dreams are made of.

I'm getting very clear signals, however, that many of these posters are "older", beyond adolescence (way beyond adolescence) women, married women, women who have never had a caring boyfriend, women in abusive relationships, women out of an abusive relationship and many women who stopped their emotional development just at the point when they should have realized men are foible-filled humans; not gods.

So getting back to wacky memes which clutch American society so very often (who can forget that little incident in Salem MA in the early 1600s when young girls accused and the authorities condemned various townspeople as witches and warlocks?), I guess I have to cut Hollywood some slack for their depiction of women. For the major studios, the bottom line has always been money. I'm sure they poll much more extensively than I (well, truth be told, I don't poll, I just read.) This may be just what so, so many women want to see on the silver screen.

Next week, I'm going to expand my quest of the realistic portrayal of young women in movies.

See you then.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Knitting Friday

Since I last posted the Knitting Friday, here's what I've been doing this summer:


These sweaters were all inspired by the top-down Mohair Minimalist top which made me realize that a top-down sweater didn't have to have raglan increases. (That's the second time just looking at a pattern solved a major stumbling block for me. The first being the Mario blanket when I realized, after looking at a quilt of Mario, that I could make a knitted blanket in mitered squares.)

In fact, here's a very recent picture of that blanket on the boy's bed. You can really see the texture of the squares in this picture. I'm still happy that the vote to not block won. If we can keep the moths away, Mario may become an heirloom.

But getting back to my summer sweaters. I think I must have done madwoman or ADHD knitting on them since I finished more than 10 this summer. I like best the lace tanks (two on the right.) I wore them the most, over camisoles and they were just right for our long spell of heat and humidity. (Yesterday, was the first day all summer when the kids, Miss M, and I were able to take a long walk in the morning. OK, it was in the rain but at least the temp was not 90+ by 8 a.m.)

The top on the left above was started last summer. That is probably one of my longest projects. The top on the right is its "sister" top - same yarn -and that's a good example of the lace tops.

The generic pattern for these lace tops is:
Decide needle size based on your yarn. Have two sizes, the smaller for the top and bottom band, the larger for the body.
CO x stitches (80 for me.) Join and work seed stitch for the width of a top band. Last row: K front and back in each stitch. (x stitches increase to 2x - 160 for me)
Change to larger needles. (I go from US 8 to US 10.5.) Work the following pattern for distance from base of neck to shoulder. (For me, it's about 4.5")
Row 1 & 2: K
Row 3 & 4: *YO, K2tog*
At shoulder, bind off loosely for each armhole like this: BO armhole sts, work pattern across for front, BO armhole sts, work pattern across for back.
On the next row, CO x sts at each underarm (10 each arm for me) and work the front and back stitches in pattern. Next row, continue on all the stitches in pattern to length.
(This part is so simple. Here's how I do the bind offs on 160 sts: BO 30 sts loosely, work pattern across 50 sts, BO 30 sts loosely, work pattern across 50 sts. Next row: CO 10 sts for underarm, work pattern across 50 sts, CO 10 sts for 2nd armhole, work pattern across 50 sts. On the next row, when I begin the pattern to length, I'm working on 120 sts. This works for me but as I said: this is a generic pattern so you have to adjust it for your size.)
Finishing: I like to work Row 4 (which is the lace pattern) and then BO on a straight K row. Then I work 1 row of extended single crochet across the bottom, 2 rows of half double crochet and I finish off with the crab stitch. But you can just switch back to smaller needles and work a few rows in seed stitch and just BO.
Final Note: This pattern is stretchy. In fact, on a yellow lace top (not pictured) I had only 90 stitches for the body and it's not small.)

All the tops shown are a variation of this generic pattern. The top I just finished last night (also not pictured) changes the pattern slightly with 5 rows of K and one row of *YO, K2tog* for a small popcorn look.

At the left, is a sweater set from the first picture. It's made in a variegated white/beige cotton.

I wasn't planning on making a 1950s matching sweater set but I had the extra yarn. I wear them separately - and a lot.

So this is a "How I Spent My Summer" posting. I still can't believe I knitted so much. Right now, I'm ready to tackle a black cotton cardi. Pictures to follow.

Happy knitting.