Friday Unrelated Information

1. As part of their "Great Whale Trail" non-lethal study (cough, JAPAN!), Greenpeace is allowing people to vote on their favorite name for a humpback whale. The leader, with 71 percent of the vote? Mr. Splashy Pants.

2. There was an article in the good old Salt Lake Tribune this morning about religious groups planning to boycott the upcoming children's fantasy movie The Golden Compass because it's "anti-God." The paper quoted a newsletter blurb for the (Catholic) Madeleine Choir School that said, "[The film] represents the new face of atheism: It is aggressive, dogmatic, and unrelenting." Um, guys? Try changing "atheism" to the name of nearly any other Christian religion. Maybe Jesus can give us all a little self-awareness and perspective for Christmas...

2a. Cough, SOAPBOX! Sorry.

3. In the spirit of tolerance, here's a picture:

I Want Some Pecan Pie

I made macadamia nut pie for Thanksgiving this year. It went over well, but I'm still craving pecan pie. Or just pecans. I was re-reading the saddest Christmas story ever, Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory," and came across this description of pecans the two characters are shelling for fruitcake:
A cheery crunch, scraps of miniature golden thunder sound as the shells collapse and the mound of sweet oily ivory meat mounts in the milkglass bowl.

(I highly recommend the story, in spite of it being sad. This is the first Capote I read as an adult [I remember reading "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and being disappointed it wasn't like the movie] and it's really, really well-done. The last line is perfect.)

The Cowboy Way

I referred to the fact that I'm now working two jobs for the rest of the year on Monday, because the laptop repair came close to bankrupting me after all and this is The Year I Gave Up Credit Cards And Roommates (And, By Extension, Ghetto Apartments, Leading To More Rent But My Kitchen Now Is Worth It).

Today is a two-job day and I woke up and said, "I really don't want to do this." But then I had to think, "It's not the easy way to work two jobs and not go (further) into debt, but it's THE COWBOY WAY. So cowboy up."

To help with the day, here's Gene Autry's Cowboy Code, similar to the Roy Roger's code I posted about a year ago and can't find. Check out number 7.

1. The Cowboy must never shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage.

2. He must never go back on his word, or a trust confided in him.

3. He must always tell the truth.

4. He must be gentle with children, the elderly, and animals.

5. He must not advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas.

6. He must help people in distress.

7. He must be a good worker.

8. He must keep himself clean in thought, speech, action, and personal habits.

9. He must respect women, parents, and his nation's laws.

10. The Cowboy is a patriot.

(I'm choosing to interpret number 10 as the bumper stickers that say Think: it's patriotic!)

Tuesday Project Roundup: Extremely Full And Incredibly Plaid Edition

And with my apologies to Jonathan Safran Foer for that title, here is the plaid dress I worked on last week:
I think I just had too much exposure to it, because I should love it--it's red and pink at the same time and it's the puffiest party dress I've worn since I was about nine. I'm just disappointed that the fit is off, because I made a practice bodice out of muslin and a bodice lining before I actually did the bodice out of the silk, and the waist still came out too big. And it was kind of a lot of work for a one-event dress.

But maybe I can wear it again to the Nutcracker. Hell, I could be in the Nutcracker in this.

She's Back!

The laptop, that is--I dared the Gateway the Saturday night after Thanksgiving (oh the humanity!) and got her back as good as new. Hooray!

Other things I did with a week off and no Internet:
1. Sewed a dress for my friend's wedding.
2. Met with the same friend to get briefed on the wedding set-up I had agreed to supervise.
3. Started the second job I took to pay for the laptop repair.
4. Made ten pounds of mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving at my brother's (five pounds plain, five pounds chive and onion).
4a. Made a macadamia nut pie, also for Thanksgiving.
5. Braved Target the day after Thanksgiving (oh the humanity!) to get a belt to go with the dress I made because the fit was slightly off.
6. Set up (and then attended, in the slightly ill-fitting dress) my friend's wedding reception.
7. Ordered 80% of my Christmas gifts. (I borrowed some internet for that.)
8. Finished both a knitted gift and a sewn gift for co-workers.

But between 1, 2, 6, and 3, it almost feels as if I didn't take vacation. Also, does anyone need any leftover mashed potatoes?

Friday Unrelated Information

1. I won’t be posting next week, because I have the week off form work and the laptop went back to Apple for repair yesterday. (Hooray, it can be fixed without bankrupting me!)

2. I’ve been wanting to get a bird feeder for the winter. I might just have to get the BirdCam to go with it.

3. Check out this vintage typewriter store: http://mytypewriter.com. They have some beauties (and they’re not cheap). Maybe I’ll have to break out my old Underwood while the laptop’s down.

4. Have a Happy Thanksgiving, all six of you blog readers. And check out the newest version of the LOLcat meme: LOLgrims, or Thanksgiving-themed pictures captioned in LOLspeak!

Not Dead Yet!

I know it’s turned into Laptop Week on the blog and that whatever sympathy people had is quickly drying up, but I had to share some good news: It turned on last night! It’s not dead yet! It’s getting better! It thinks it will go for a walk! It feels happy!

Ahem. Those movie quotes get out of control. And the laptop doesn’t feel that happy, because its keyboard is fried. But I’m happy that it’s a keyboard replacement and not a MacBook replacement.

Now I want to watch Monty Python…

Wednesday’s Film Recommendations

You might have heard that I spilled cereal on my laptop (my brother had to email and ask, “How exactly did that go down? ‘Hmm, computer, would you like to try some of this too?’ Or was it more of a throwing action?”). But on the bright side, I’ve seen a string of good movies lately, which has been some nice escapism.

I highly recommend The Darjeeling Limited; the short that begins it, “Hotel Chevalier,” will make you want to go to Paris and wear a hotel robe. I finally saw Little Miss Sunshine, on the recommendation of the same brother teasing me about the laptop, and that’s pretty fabulous, too. And last night—after a day involving video editing (I’m a copywriter, by the way; that’s all I’m saying), getting paperwork notarized for a credit card dispute (no, I did NOT charge $500 at sears.com), and all sorts of other issues—I watched The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou again. There’s just something about watching someone else’s crisis on film.

(Actually, I suppose that something would be catharsis. So watch these three good cathartic movies in case you’ve had a bad week, too.)

Tuesday Project Roundup: There Is None Because I Can’t Upload Photos To A Broken Laptop

We Interrupt This Blog…

…for the first installment of an exciting saga titled “I Spilled Cereal On My Laptop Last Night.” (You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! Actually, you’ll just cry and swear off cereal forever! Because what is an almost-28-year-old doing eating cereal anyway!)

While I’d love to use my work PC to post pictures of cats wanting pie, I think that’s generally frowned on as “unproductive.” I’ll try to stealth-post as much as possible but that will depend on how many coworkers are standing around pinning “creative” “concepts” to the walls. (You’d be surprised how popular that is here.)

So, to be continued...

Friday Unrelated Information

1. November is National Novel Writing Month--NaNoWriMo--so if you've been procrastinating, say, most of your adult life, you could take the challenge and try to get 50,000 words on paper by month's end.

2. November is also NaKniSweMo, or National Knit a Sweater Month. If your novel doesn't work, you could try this instead. (I, however, am knitting a vest, making it NaKniVeMo.)

3. I saw these high-design cat beds featured yesterday (click the picture to see all styles, including the "kitty pod"). Want!

4. BoingBoing steered me to this blog that showcases the painted background of animated films--lots of it is gorgeous and very evocative. It also made me watch The Sword in the Stone last night.

"Then there was the bad weather."

The haze and the watery sun and the leaves drying out and losing their color have not been bad weather, but they've been a little depressing. (The time change making it dark at six doesn't help, either.) I had to think of this passage that starts one of my favorites, A Moveable Feast. Hemingway's trick for the November depression was to leave Paris and go somewhere even colder, like the Alps. Nice. If I ever live in Paris, I'll let you know how it works.

"Then there was the bad weather. It would come in one day when the fall was over. We would have to shut the windows in the night against the rain and the cold wind would strip the leaves from the trees in the Place Contrescarpe...Now that the bad weather had come, we could leave Paris for a while for a place where this rain would be snow coming down through the pines and covering the road and the high hillsides and at an altitude where we would hear it creak as we walked home at night."

And then there's this in the next chapter:
"When we came back to Paris it was clear and cold and lovely. The city had accommodated itself to winter...and on the streets the winter light was beautiful. Now you were accustomed to see the bare trees against the sky and you walked on the fresh-washed gravel paths through the Luxembourg gardens in the clear sharp wind. The trees were sculpture without their leaves when you were reconciled to them..."

Maybe the trick is just getting reconciled.

No, the trick is getting reconciled in Paris.

O RLY, SALT LAKE?

O really!
As I said, I don't know a lot about politics and this blog is supposedly about literature, but I am just happy that someone who refused to put up billboards because he considers them a blight on the landscape was able to win without the help of billboards.

Also, did you know that "'Progressive' has become a new catch-phrase for 'liberal'"? The Deseret News thinks so.

(Photo ganked from the Salt Lake Tribune site, taken by Trent Nelson, probably in violation of Trent's copyright. Sorry, Trent.)

Tuesday Project Roundup: Deadlines, Kitty Hats, And I Hate Blogger Edition

The last week or so has been a staging time for me, sewing-wise: I have to decide who gets a homemade Christmas/birthday/wedding/shower present, when I need to make the presents, and what I'll be making for myself to wear to these events that require presents. And I also figured out how all of that coincides with JoAnn sales and paychecks. There have been lots of lists.

Even the holiday deadlines for knitting started last week, with some, um, kitty hats for a Halloween party. We went as the co-host's two kittens, which was a success. (Blogger is refusing to let me load the pictures, so you'll just have to imagine knitted bonnets with ears.)

But knitting with synthetic fur yarn on a deadline isn't my favorite thing, so I'm actually relieved to start the crafty frenzy of seasonal gifts--I won't be covered in orange fuzz when I work on these.

Election Day Tomorrow

I made a special trip a few weeks ago to the County Clerk's office so I could register at my new address on the last day possible. (See how font choices can motivate people, whether for good or ill?)

I've spent most of my life trying to ignore politics, but I think I'm waking up now. And while my political theory is an inchoate mix of V for Vendetta, Brazil, and some Ayn Rand, I'm trying to learn more. I can't fathom that people do not vote, especially women whose great-grandmothers weren't able to.

So if you're registered, go vote tomorrow in your local elections. And in keeping with my incoherent politics, here's an excellent essay about how the domestic "War on Terror" has devolved into the "War on the Unexpected."

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Today's new word is affineur. As you might guess, it's French, and refers to the person in charge of affinage, or the refining and ripening of cheese.

2. Speaking of cheese, the Hawaii Island Goat Dairy on the Big Island is looking for interns: They'll give you room and board and you'll give them two to three months of bottle-feeding kids, feeding goats, farm work, and making cheese.

3. And speaking of farms, yesterday I received the color card (like a fabric swatch book, but with yarn) that I had ordered from a merino sheep ranch in Montana. Now, usually natural fiber yarn has either no smell or a faint-but-not-unpleasant animal smell. I don't want to sound like I go around smelling cats, but it's comparable to the smell of a cat: clean and fresh but furry. But the Montanta yarn on the color card, even in two-inch sample lengths, smelled like cold springtime air and flowers. Seriously. I don't know what they're putting on their sheep up there, but I want to go visit and see/smell for myself.

Helen S. Jones On Why People Sew:

"...mostly, sewing is done because someone wants better-looking, better-made clothes than the same amount of money could buy; or a high fashion look at low budget figure; or a unique custom-created garment. They sew because it's fun! They sew because it's the thing to do. It is the proud and fascinating leisure-time effort of women of all walks of life--and some men, too."


(From a textbook published in 1970, Hi-Fashion Sewing and Tailoring. I was trying to find fitting info for taking in a dress bodice, but the book assumes the reader knows how to do that already and just provides detailed fitting info for pants--pants which were just starting to be as acceptable in all social situations as a dress in the '70s's.)