I don't have much to say about 9/11, other than to note that today's an anniversary thereof. I am glad the weather is so crappy today. It's actually more painful when it's glorious, the way it was on 9/11/2001.
I didn't lose any loved ones in the attacks, nor did any of my close friends lose anybody close to them, except for one fireman, Pat, who I knew somewhat. He was a local hero to many of my pals in the rooms.
God bless all those who died that day and in the aftermath. You'll always be a part of me, literally - I breathed you in.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Grab bag
Adam and I went to an engagement party last night for our friends Pete & Jenny. Their apartment is on 80th off of Broadway; it's a great apartment. Great high ceilings, big windows, etc. As a bonus I realized (since I haven't been up there in years, since I quit therapy, I'd forgotten what was around there) that I would pass right by Zabar's on my way to their place. Adam went the party earlier than I and I was meeting him there, so I felt myself free to stop in Zabar's. I bought a bunch of stuff ... for myself. And then thought, they are going to think I am an ass for bringing a Zabar's bag to their party that isn't for them! so I sort of hid it beneath my backpack. They didn't care, of course. But you know, it's kind of in the same camp as bringing a half-drunk bottle of wine to a party. Sort of, uh, gauche. But it was too hard to resist the chance to go to Zabar's.
After the party we went to get the car out of the parking garage and I was struck by a pang of nostalgia for when I lived in NYC - up until only four months ago - and although I really don't miss living there in general, last night I had a moment of missing it. And I suspect when the weather turns cooler, I will really contend with some more moments like that; NYC is phenomenal in the fall. But you know, every place is great in the fall! When I realized that, I knew I could move away from there finally. Because it's so f'ing hard to live there, most of the time. But it has its considerable charms, and when you are on the outside looking in, it's easy to forget all the headaches and smells and struggles and expenses associated with living in Manhattan or Brooklyn.
I finished the baby booties. The first time I made this pattern I made an entire inner lining out of the white fluffy stuff and this time when I was doing it I realized that it doesn't call for that at all. I thought it was quite nice to have the fluffy lining, which is what real UGGs have, and I considered doing that again, but went with the lazy option, ultimately. I think they are so much better with the lining! but it's twice as much work. Here they are drying (and being blocked, with plastic shopping bags as stuffing):
If you have an opinion on the lining vs no-lining question, please comment.
Finally, the new job: It's okay so far. Not terrific, yet, because I don't have much to do yet. There's not much I know how TO do, since the place has all this history stored in people's heads and they forget that newcomers don't know where anything is or how to get an account on the various servers or which servers serve which sites, or anything. I did extract (like pulling teeth) from this guy I'm supposed to be shadowing (I'm not, exactly, yet) a smallish task to work on that allows me to get my feet wet with Python and Django (never used either) and maybe create some useful templates for their users to repurpose. Did that, Friday afternoon. I hope this week feels a little more productive. It's hard to go to work and do nothing, and resist the urge to read knitting blogs and shop online all day.
After the party we went to get the car out of the parking garage and I was struck by a pang of nostalgia for when I lived in NYC - up until only four months ago - and although I really don't miss living there in general, last night I had a moment of missing it. And I suspect when the weather turns cooler, I will really contend with some more moments like that; NYC is phenomenal in the fall. But you know, every place is great in the fall! When I realized that, I knew I could move away from there finally. Because it's so f'ing hard to live there, most of the time. But it has its considerable charms, and when you are on the outside looking in, it's easy to forget all the headaches and smells and struggles and expenses associated with living in Manhattan or Brooklyn.
I finished the baby booties. The first time I made this pattern I made an entire inner lining out of the white fluffy stuff and this time when I was doing it I realized that it doesn't call for that at all. I thought it was quite nice to have the fluffy lining, which is what real UGGs have, and I considered doing that again, but went with the lazy option, ultimately. I think they are so much better with the lining! but it's twice as much work. Here they are drying (and being blocked, with plastic shopping bags as stuffing):
If you have an opinion on the lining vs no-lining question, please comment.
Finally, the new job: It's okay so far. Not terrific, yet, because I don't have much to do yet. There's not much I know how TO do, since the place has all this history stored in people's heads and they forget that newcomers don't know where anything is or how to get an account on the various servers or which servers serve which sites, or anything. I did extract (like pulling teeth) from this guy I'm supposed to be shadowing (I'm not, exactly, yet) a smallish task to work on that allows me to get my feet wet with Python and Django (never used either) and maybe create some useful templates for their users to repurpose. Did that, Friday afternoon. I hope this week feels a little more productive. It's hard to go to work and do nothing, and resist the urge to read knitting blogs and shop online all day.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Blogging on knitting
I don't know why knitting is the last thing I want to write about in this blog. It may be because I've had other issues taking up my notice - being laid off, being out of a job, interviewing for jobs, deciding to take my career in a slightly different direction, interviewing for those jobs, finally getting a job. Maybe it's because I've kept track of the knitting projects I've been doing in ravelry instead, but that's no excuse because I don't actually write much in ravelry about the projects, I just enter them into their tracking system and rarely add a note or two. And anyway, lots of people still can't get into ravelry, so it's still somewhat suboptimal.
But since this blog is nominally about knitting and yarns about knitting (get it? a pun on the word "yarn"? sorry), then I should write about knitting at least sometimes.
I'm working on these little UGG-like booties with leftover sock yarn doubled. I've had this idea for a long time because I think they will be so cool. Baby UGGs in jewel colors; baby UGGs in non-UGG colors, essentially. If they look good, I'll sell them on etsy. I started a pair last night with some magenta multicolored yarn from Cherry Tree Hill. Baby booties are great because they are so small and thus knit up quickly. I wish it were that easy to make a pair for myself!
I was reading in another knitting blog about how the blogger was looking forward to faculty meetings, in which she would be able to knit contentedly on her latest project. I felt much envy. I just don't quite have the nerve to knit in my work meetings; I wish I did, because I certainly listen perfectly well while knitting (I knit in my program meetings and absorb the content I need to just fine), and it gives me something to do with my hands. But I have tried a couple times and I always feel like people think I am a lightweight. Maybe when I get more settled in here, and feel more solid. We'll see.
* * * * *
Now, after having written the above and then looking back over the previous few posts, I realize I'm writing about textile stuff more than I thought. Designing has taken up some of my time and attention lately. It's not easy to write about because it's supposed to be secret until (one hopes) it gets published. But I have tried to write about it as much as I can.
But since this blog is nominally about knitting and yarns about knitting (get it? a pun on the word "yarn"? sorry), then I should write about knitting at least sometimes.
I'm working on these little UGG-like booties with leftover sock yarn doubled. I've had this idea for a long time because I think they will be so cool. Baby UGGs in jewel colors; baby UGGs in non-UGG colors, essentially. If they look good, I'll sell them on etsy. I started a pair last night with some magenta multicolored yarn from Cherry Tree Hill. Baby booties are great because they are so small and thus knit up quickly. I wish it were that easy to make a pair for myself!
I was reading in another knitting blog about how the blogger was looking forward to faculty meetings, in which she would be able to knit contentedly on her latest project. I felt much envy. I just don't quite have the nerve to knit in my work meetings; I wish I did, because I certainly listen perfectly well while knitting (I knit in my program meetings and absorb the content I need to just fine), and it gives me something to do with my hands. But I have tried a couple times and I always feel like people think I am a lightweight. Maybe when I get more settled in here, and feel more solid. We'll see.
Now, after having written the above and then looking back over the previous few posts, I realize I'm writing about textile stuff more than I thought. Designing has taken up some of my time and attention lately. It's not easy to write about because it's supposed to be secret until (one hopes) it gets published. But I have tried to write about it as much as I can.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Proposal to Interweave Knits
So the main knitting magazine I read is Interweave Knits - it's the only one I subscribe to and usually I don't even buy other ones. Although I do leaf through them at the magazine rack, I don't like the styles of the projects in them, being either (Vogue Knitting) too out-there avant garde fashion world-y or (Knit.1 or Knitscene) too youth culture of today or (Knitter's & others) just plain dowdy. The worst is Cast On, which is published by the Knitting Guild of America, which I got a subscription to when I joined TKGA in order to take the Master Knitter program but didn't want.
Over the past couple days I worked on a proposal to IWK based on the guidelines posted on their website which were for the Spring '08 issue. I thought, that's really kind of a short lead time, but that is what is posted up there, so that must be accurate. I spent all this frickin time creating swatches and writing a proposal that would grab their attention and finally, as I was rereading the guidelines to make sure I had dotted all my i's and crossed all my t's, I came to the bottom where it said, Deadline May 18, 2007. I fairly plotzed. The worst is it is my own fault for not noticing, although they are jerks for not taking it down once it was outdated and also for not putting up the Summer one, for which the deadline was August 27, 2007, which I found out today when I phoned them up.
Fortunately, the lady on the phone was really nice and she said I should just go ahead and send in my proposal anyway, that she is the one who will be logging all of the submitted proposals and she will be doing that on Tuesday, so if I send it to arrive on Tuesday she will include it in with all the others! Hooray! So I retooled the proposal letter so it wasn't so Spring '08 specific, and put my little package together and am sending it via Fedex today. I am very hopeful, though since I am new to this and to IWK, my chances are less than those of a seasoned designer. But it's a very cute design, a great looking proposal (Adam read it and thought it looked very professional too), and I definitely have a shot.
I wish I could post the scans here of my proposal, because I am so proud of it! But I can't, because it all has to be double probation top secret until they make a decision.
Along these same lines ... I still haven't heard back from Knitty.com. I really hope they decide to use my design; everybody who has seen the prototype here in my house really loves it and thinks it is awesome. Pete even said he thought I should have them mass-produced in China! Which, if I could figure out how they could incorporate lead-based paint into the final product, I would probably do.
Over the past couple days I worked on a proposal to IWK based on the guidelines posted on their website which were for the Spring '08 issue. I thought, that's really kind of a short lead time, but that is what is posted up there, so that must be accurate. I spent all this frickin time creating swatches and writing a proposal that would grab their attention and finally, as I was rereading the guidelines to make sure I had dotted all my i's and crossed all my t's, I came to the bottom where it said, Deadline May 18, 2007. I fairly plotzed. The worst is it is my own fault for not noticing, although they are jerks for not taking it down once it was outdated and also for not putting up the Summer one, for which the deadline was August 27, 2007, which I found out today when I phoned them up.
Fortunately, the lady on the phone was really nice and she said I should just go ahead and send in my proposal anyway, that she is the one who will be logging all of the submitted proposals and she will be doing that on Tuesday, so if I send it to arrive on Tuesday she will include it in with all the others! Hooray! So I retooled the proposal letter so it wasn't so Spring '08 specific, and put my little package together and am sending it via Fedex today. I am very hopeful, though since I am new to this and to IWK, my chances are less than those of a seasoned designer. But it's a very cute design, a great looking proposal (Adam read it and thought it looked very professional too), and I definitely have a shot.
I wish I could post the scans here of my proposal, because I am so proud of it! But I can't, because it all has to be double probation top secret until they make a decision.
Along these same lines ... I still haven't heard back from Knitty.com. I really hope they decide to use my design; everybody who has seen the prototype here in my house really loves it and thinks it is awesome. Pete even said he thought I should have them mass-produced in China! Which, if I could figure out how they could incorporate lead-based paint into the final product, I would probably do.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Making a Contribution
Today's idea for making a contribution is from Sharon Eakes, whose Fresh Views monthly column focuses on a single topic, relates it to one of the five disciplines of a learning community, and offers a coaching tip and a follow-up telegathering. I love her column; it's always very positive and uplifting. (To subscribe, go here.) Rather than paraphrase Sharon I'll just repurpose her text here:
If you’d like to donate, just go to www.orbis.org/kidsforsight. Or pass this story on, in some low-impact-on-the-internet way like posting on a blog, to let other people know about it.
The best story I’ve heard lately about making a contribution comes from Nyan Pendyala, age 9. He and his 6 year old sister Lehka started the Kids for Sight Project. They’re working with ORBIS International, a charity that has been helping prevent blindness worldwide for 25 years. I interviewed Nyan for this Fresh Views, asking first how he got involved in this project.
“Well,” he said, “I stopped my dad when he was flipping through a newsletter from ORBIS International and I saw a picture of Ronald McDonald. I wanted to know what Ronald McDonald was doing there. I found out he was helping keep kids from becoming blind by building an eye hospital in New Delhi. I said, ‘I should help with that!’”
“Try this,” Nyan said to me. “Close your eyes for 20 seconds. How does it feel? Scary? That’s how a blind kid feels. I really wanted to help, so I asked my friends to donate to ORBIS instead of bringing presents to my birthday party. My dad and I called ORBIS and told them how I’d raised money for them. Because I was the first kid they knew of to raise money at a birthday party, they invited me to visit them. Their office is in New York city so we went there, and they helped me choose the goal of a pediatric eye care center and training facility in Chennai, a poor town where my dad was born and my grandparents still live.”
To my question about what he’s done since then to raise money, Nyan said, “The ORBIS people put us on their website. We made postcards and I’ve given them to all my family and friends and my parents’ friends. I gave a speech to 80 people and it was easy. Now I’m trying to find connectors, people with lots of friends. If I can inspire connectors, they will inspire lots of other people and I can help the kids faster. Because you know what? If you can catch an eye problem early, the kid doesn’t get blind.”
As I talked with Nyan, I was struck by how animated he was, how happy. I asked him how this project made him feel. “Really good!” was his intense response.
If you’d like to donate, just go to www.orbis.org/kidsforsight. Or pass this story on, in some low-impact-on-the-internet way like posting on a blog, to let other people know about it.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Petty Larceny by Next Door Neighbor
It's almost 3am and I can't sleep because I keep going over and over this in my head so I thought, I can post about this on my blog anyway.
My next door neighbors have, uh, fluid boundaries when it comes to where their property ends and mine starts. Several times in the four months since I've lived here they've come over to do whatever pleased them in my property, and so far I've not said anything about this. The first time, they had given us a bunch of sod that they had dug up from their lawn, and I happened to come out and catch the man in my back yard with a wheelbarrow, taking back some of it. He had the good grace to be embarrassed and apologize, and I felt - what? - like I owed them because they had given us this stuff anyway, so I said it was okay. Then they did some work on their walkway that abuts ours, and they just came over and dug up a section of my walkway that was contiguous with what they were digging up of their own, and repaved the entire area with concrete so it ended up in better shape than it had been before. They had been having some flooding in their basement, and this fixed it; it also fixed most of a minor problem of flooding I had in my own basement too. I didn't appreciate that they didn't ask me beforehand if they could dig up the old concrete on my property before they did it, but again, I felt they had done me a favor, so I couldn't complain about the boundaries.
What happened yesterday was weirder. I was home, and I thought I saw in the reflection of my monitor (my back is to the window onto the back yard) something in the back yard, but when I turned around there wasn't anybody there. Later I went out and was looking at the sweet peppers I have been growing back there. I've been watching them with some excitement, as they are finally almost big enough to pick. To my surprise the biggest of them, the first one to come out, the one I've been watching most excitedly ... was GONE! We've had critters (which ate all the apples off my tree) so I thought it might have been them, but there was none of the telltale detritus like leftover bites and whatnot that was always evidence of the critters stealing apples. I thought of course of my neighbor, and wondered, but felt bad that I was so suspicious.
So tonight the neighbors' kid came and rang my bell and said his mom wanted me to come over. Which I thought was a little peremptory, but who knows? maybe something was wrong. So I dropped what I was doing and followed him over there. And she has all this crap that was left behind in the store they bought and are redoing, and she wanted to give me some of it. Stale, inedible ice cream cones in bulk, Camel cigarette swag I don't want, Winston drink cups, stuff like that. And I somehow can't say no, even though I really don't want any of it in my house. And it comes out that she sent her boy over to take some tomatoes from my garden. And two peppers too. I say, Oh, that was you! I couldn't figure out how they disappeared!!! But laughed and let it all be a good joke between neighbors. I was put on the spot, there in front of all three of her kids, and couldn't get in touch with how I really felt. I even invited them to our housewarming party we are having tomorrow (well, today)! When the very freaking LAST thing I want is for them to come over to my back yard!
I told my boyfriend about it later and he was appropriately indignant. He offered to tell them they better never do that again. I took him up on his offer and said, "Yes, say to them, 'She would never say anything because she is too nice, but I will tell you she was upset,'" which is complete bullshit. I didn't say anything because I was concerned first and foremost with avoiding a conflict. I'm absolutely NOT too nice. Anyway, I know I need to have the conversation with her myself, on my own behalf, and not let my boyfriend fight my battles for me.
And now I cannot sleep because I keep playing out that conversation with her in my head. Alternating that with praying for her, and for her kid whom she's now taught it's okay to steal stuff from my yard. Alternating that with telling them we have a gun and if somebody trespasses on our property we have the right to use it. With praying for her. With telling her in front of her kid that she should not have told him to go in our yard to take stuff. Then thinking he will feel humiliated on her behalf and will begin stealing from us BECAUSE of that.
Blah blah blah blah BLAH ... my brain is driving me crazy!
I'm going back to bed and I'm going to pray for them as insistently and nonstop as I can, as it's the only thing that works in interpersonal conflict situations like this. And let tomorrow's conversation with this woman take place when it takes place.
Higher Power!
My next door neighbors have, uh, fluid boundaries when it comes to where their property ends and mine starts. Several times in the four months since I've lived here they've come over to do whatever pleased them in my property, and so far I've not said anything about this. The first time, they had given us a bunch of sod that they had dug up from their lawn, and I happened to come out and catch the man in my back yard with a wheelbarrow, taking back some of it. He had the good grace to be embarrassed and apologize, and I felt - what? - like I owed them because they had given us this stuff anyway, so I said it was okay. Then they did some work on their walkway that abuts ours, and they just came over and dug up a section of my walkway that was contiguous with what they were digging up of their own, and repaved the entire area with concrete so it ended up in better shape than it had been before. They had been having some flooding in their basement, and this fixed it; it also fixed most of a minor problem of flooding I had in my own basement too. I didn't appreciate that they didn't ask me beforehand if they could dig up the old concrete on my property before they did it, but again, I felt they had done me a favor, so I couldn't complain about the boundaries.
What happened yesterday was weirder. I was home, and I thought I saw in the reflection of my monitor (my back is to the window onto the back yard) something in the back yard, but when I turned around there wasn't anybody there. Later I went out and was looking at the sweet peppers I have been growing back there. I've been watching them with some excitement, as they are finally almost big enough to pick. To my surprise the biggest of them, the first one to come out, the one I've been watching most excitedly ... was GONE! We've had critters (which ate all the apples off my tree) so I thought it might have been them, but there was none of the telltale detritus like leftover bites and whatnot that was always evidence of the critters stealing apples. I thought of course of my neighbor, and wondered, but felt bad that I was so suspicious.
So tonight the neighbors' kid came and rang my bell and said his mom wanted me to come over. Which I thought was a little peremptory, but who knows? maybe something was wrong. So I dropped what I was doing and followed him over there. And she has all this crap that was left behind in the store they bought and are redoing, and she wanted to give me some of it. Stale, inedible ice cream cones in bulk, Camel cigarette swag I don't want, Winston drink cups, stuff like that. And I somehow can't say no, even though I really don't want any of it in my house. And it comes out that she sent her boy over to take some tomatoes from my garden. And two peppers too. I say, Oh, that was you! I couldn't figure out how they disappeared!!! But laughed and let it all be a good joke between neighbors. I was put on the spot, there in front of all three of her kids, and couldn't get in touch with how I really felt. I even invited them to our housewarming party we are having tomorrow (well, today)! When the very freaking LAST thing I want is for them to come over to my back yard!
I told my boyfriend about it later and he was appropriately indignant. He offered to tell them they better never do that again. I took him up on his offer and said, "Yes, say to them, 'She would never say anything because she is too nice, but I will tell you she was upset,'" which is complete bullshit. I didn't say anything because I was concerned first and foremost with avoiding a conflict. I'm absolutely NOT too nice. Anyway, I know I need to have the conversation with her myself, on my own behalf, and not let my boyfriend fight my battles for me.
And now I cannot sleep because I keep playing out that conversation with her in my head. Alternating that with praying for her, and for her kid whom she's now taught it's okay to steal stuff from my yard. Alternating that with telling them we have a gun and if somebody trespasses on our property we have the right to use it. With praying for her. With telling her in front of her kid that she should not have told him to go in our yard to take stuff. Then thinking he will feel humiliated on her behalf and will begin stealing from us BECAUSE of that.
Blah blah blah blah BLAH ... my brain is driving me crazy!
I'm going back to bed and I'm going to pray for them as insistently and nonstop as I can, as it's the only thing that works in interpersonal conflict situations like this. And let tomorrow's conversation with this woman take place when it takes place.
Higher Power!
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