Striped AL

I'm interrupting the political commentary for a little while because I have something to share with you, that and I'm still plugging away on the reading so I don't have much new to report.

A new scarf for hubby out of some very yummy yarn. It's sort of a mash-up of a couple of techniques and not at all a new/original pattern, It's basically this (rav) pattern, but without the self striping yarn and three yarns instead of two and a six row repeat to get this particular striping pattern. If you want to do one exactly like me here's the deal. Yarn: 1 ball each of three colors Elsebeth Lavold Classic Al, I used black(A), foggy(B), and ecru (C)

Needles: 2 US size 10, 6.0mm double-pointed

Cast-on 23 stitches with color A.
Slide stitches to opposite side of needle
K1 P1 Across with color B.
Slide stitched to opposite side of needle
Work in pattern across with color C.
*Turn.
Work in pattern with color A
Slide
Work in pattern with color C
Slide
Work in pattern with color B
Turn
Work in pattern with color A
Slide
Work in pattern with color B
Slide
Work in pattern with color C
Repeat from *
BO with Color A when you run out of yarn.

ETA: to make the edges neat, be consistent with twisting the yarns. I always bring the new yarn up the back.

finding a candidate week 2: The Plan

Some light reading. Blog silence will ensue for a few days.

My favorite candidate revealed

Last week, when I started these musings, I mentioned that although I hadn't been paying attention, I did have a candidate in mind. I promise full disclosure so here it is.

I have had a love/hate relationship with Hillary Clinton since I shook her hand when I was 14. It was 1993, and the newly elected President and his wife came to speak to the National Education Association convention in San Francisco. After the speech, both Bill and Hillary walked along the front row shaking hands, where my 11 year old sister and I were standing on chairs for the chance to be that lucky. The whole thing was kind of chaotic, so my memories are also that way. What I do remember a really warm and caring smile that accompanied that handshake. The brief moment was rapidly replaced with the chaos of being knocked over by some burly secret service agents, but she left a positive impression on me. That I remember well.

I will admit childhood perceptions are not the best way to choose a candidate. But when this guy came to talk to my 5th grade class, I thought he was a "bad man". Turns out I was right, so I guess I was a fairly perceptive child. I have a precedent for trusting my younger self.

Anyways, during the debacle that plagued Clinton's presidency, my love for Hillary waned a bit. I lost a touch of respect for her "stand by your man" attitude and the praise she received for it. It did not fit with the strong woman I thought she was. To me, strong women are independent women, and strong women don't put up with men who disrespect them. So I thought standing by her man was crap. I thought it was the wrong message to send to women who were in bad relationships. I did think that it was mostly a political move, but I didn't agree with it. Reality was that I never actually knew why she was doing it, I just saw what the media wanted me to see. I was in college, pursuing a degree in a man's world, and a bit feisty about being a strong woman.

Now, time has passed, and she has been a successful senator, I almost forget she's even married and I'm pretty impressed that a women made it this far in the race. I think she would make a great president, I think she has the experience and the know how to actually get something done in the job and I'd feel safe with her at the helm. I also think that it's about time we could catch up the the rest of the world and acknowledge that women can do the job as well as men. Chile, The Philippines, England, and others I'm sure have all come to terms with this, so we really are not all that progressive. But, we already know how I feel about women's rights.

So this is were I stand going into this primary. On an emotional level, I want Hillary to win. But, my logic takes over. Just because one party might be progressive enough, doesn't mean the whole country is. Sadly, I don't think we will elect a women president. But I'm an equal opportunity pessimist: I don't think that we will elect a black president either. Especially, a relatively young, relatively inexperienced one. I think Obama is great too. He might just be able to change the world, but in reality the president in only one part of our government. I'm not convinced he has the know how to make the rest of the wheels turn. I think that Hillary might, but she might just be stonewalled by the ol boy's club as well.

So, my logic tells me that if I want to see a democrat in power, I shouldn't vote for either of them, and my preference for experience tells me Bill Richardson would be good choice. Ahh, there's the rub. Vote with my beliefs, or gamble for a winner? 23 days left to make a decision.

finding a candidate week 1: Final story

On first check there were no relevant stories, but I found a moment at lunchtime to check again and here was the story I got: Obama lines up another big-name backer.

Where to start?

First, I almost didn't read the article because I thought there had been a mistake. Under the headline is a picture of the republican candidates, and we've already established that at this point I don't want to learn about them. They will not be on my bubble form next month.

Then, there is the lead-in, "Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano plans to announce her support for the Democratic presidential candidate, a move that could erode support among women for Clinton.". There are so many things about this statement that throw me off track, I almost thought I was in the wrong place again. I have never heard of Janet Napolitano, so I wouldn't count her as a "big-name backer". Then this eroding support among women thing...the infinite implications of that statement...well it just pisses me off, so I won't even get started.

But, I pressed on. The first 6 sentences of this article are relevant to the democratic primary and discuss the importance of the big name support. The remaining 9 sentences are concerning the campaign finances of the Republican candidates. Now the picture makes sense. I think someone needs to start teaching newspaper writers/editors/whoever about key points in writing. Maybe they all skipped that day of third grade, but if I recall correctly, the title should be indicative of the content and the content should stay *mostly* on the topic it intended to address. Maybe 6 is more than 9 in that new math.

Final analysis, the news is not a source for actual information. I will now happily return to my blissfully news free existence and bid a fond farewell to this particular experiment.

finding a candidate week 1 continued

I had a rather chaotic day today and spent alot of time worrying about friends and family and colleagues and the array of troubles that are troubling them. Not to mention new non backwards compatible versions of my analysis software, and plume parts blowing ways the wind isn't, and why does excel calculate angles counterclockwise anyways?

So, in short I just checked the top stories for the day. It's 11:18 pm, it still counts as my Thursday check, and alas, no news concerning democratic candidates. It's the other party in the spotlight today. But top story number two was this sad yet still inspiring story of Sir Edmund Hillary's death. I offer my sincere respect to a great adventurer, which is the true spirit of life.

Finding a candidate: week 1 continued

It's Wednesday, and today's top story is not surprisingly about yesterday's primary: Clinton Escapes to Fight Another Day. This particular article is from the NY Times, and not Rueters, which tends to have a more international readership, so there is a bit more meat in it. Not much, but a bit more. This article does address something that has been haunting my decision from the start: The overall elect-ability of the democratic candidate. My ultimate goal is to get a Dem in the White House, and I have some concerns about ANY of the candidates actually being able to pull that off. I know first hand the this country is not as progressive as we like to think...

I'm saving my actual analysis and opinions for another post, so you'll have to remain in suspense about those aspects of my thought process for a little while longer.

It is abundantly clear to me that the news is not a good source of information, it's just spin and poll results, which can be proved quite wrong. But I knew that was probably the case from the start. I have thought about abandoning my one story a day strategy, but I only planned to do it for a week anyways, so I'll stick it out. I have several ideas on how to proceed, and 3.5 weeks left until I bubble in my vote, so I hope you'll stay with me in my experiment.

learning something new

Today I learned that my husband has an alarmingly expansive vocabulary, and donated 2000+ grains of rice. Go have fun.

finding a candidate week 1

When last we talked on this topic I had narrowed my choice to 4 candidates. In full disclosure, I do have some preconceived notions and leanings that I haven't discussed yet, but I most likely will as time goes on. I decided that I needed some more definitive information. To see how the rest of the country might make these decisions I am *gasp* reading the news. One election related story a day from my google homepage top stories. These change over the course of the day, but I don't have infinite time, so these are what I got when I happened to glance.

Monday: Obama rocks past Clinton in New Hampshire
This is a story about a "running poll" leading up to the famed New Hampshire primary. The central focus is that Obama has pulled ahead in this poll. He has pulled ahead of Clinton by 10 points, not knowing much about politics that seems to me like the difference between an A paper and a B paper (both still passing). Read a little further, however and the poll has an error of 3.4 points in either direction. Now any person with an understanding of elementary school mathematics can infer that this error margin means the actual difference between the two candidates can be as large at 16.8 points (Now were talking A student to C student) or as small as 3.2 points. In my world that the difference between an A and an A+. At my university and A+ is a grade which cannot be granted on an undergraduate transcript, making the two almost equivelent. That is a much grayer area as far as polls go in my mind. My quest has not been furthered at all, as I know nothing more about the candidates themselves, just a fairly vague, pseudo-quantitative measure of their predicted performance in 1 out of 50 states.

Tuesday: Tuesday's "top story" click was nearly identical to Monday's. I'm serious the article was almost word for word talking about the same poll and the now 13 point difference between Obama and Hillary. It did mention that Clinton is a former first lady, a fact that only those living under a rock wouldn't know, but not information on candidate views at all!. Since this has done nothing to help me make a good decision, I may try a second click later in the day. I did manage a second click, which surprisingly took me to MTV. Why the election is about you. As opposed to my previous attempts this information had actual quotes from an actual candidate. Does anyone else find it scary that my most informative article so far is from MTV?

I had originally decided to post all 5 weekdays at once, but it might become a very long post, so here you go. I'll be back later in the week. :)

For the love of Zimmerman

In my hiatus of blogging I have been knitting. Alot of knitting has occured in the last two months and absolutely none of it was for Christmas! I'm taking a new approach to my hobby. I will knit what I want, when I want with no deadlines or guilt hanging over it. A hobby is supposed to be fun and not stressful in the least. So I will knit haphazardly and ADD-like and I will love every minute of it.

When I found out about the newest addition to be added to the family, I went baby knitting crazy. I was beyond excited about knitting for the little guy, and when I learned about the BSJ
and saw the beautiful ones here and here I was inspired. I scored some hello yarn fat sock (color tundra) back at the beginning of August that was very much intended for a BSJ. I had decided to purchase The Opinionated Knitter when Knitpicks was having a book sale in July so I was all good to go. It was at the top of my Ravelry queue pretty much from day 1.

The book is everything everyone says it is. Funny, witty, and absolutely brilliant. The brain this women had is incomparable. My husband was so amazed by the pattern as it was being knit he said "could you imagine what she would have done if she grew up today, when women are allowed to use their brains for science and stuff". I read this book cover to cover when it first came. It is a pleasure just to read, not even to knit from.

The thing is, with all the appreciation before picking up the needles, I was pretty sure that I had gotten all I could out of the book. I was absolutely blown away when I actually did pick up the needles. One Saturday afternoon shortly before the baby shower I was chugging data and picked up the leftover Baby Ull from the Peapod sweater. I had always intended to make these bootees to go with the set and watching a computer do it's thing for 20 minute chunks seemed like a good time to start. Problem was, my appropriately sized dpns were not all locatable, some were in the car and I was too lazy to track them all down. The straights were there though and Elizabeth was sitting in arm's reach so I thumbed through to discover that there were bootees knit in the "same ilk" as the BSJ. So I cast on. My blind faith kept me going, because my very geometric, scientific, logical brain kept saying, no screaming "you are wasting your time, you are doing something wrong, this will never be a bootee". Right up until the very last statement in the pattern where you split your live stitches in two and graft them together and hello light bulbs! It was brilliant, and look how adorable!Mom reports that they stay on great too. I used size 3 needles and followed the pattern to a T.

When little nephew arrived a tad before schedule the BSJ was still not on the needles, but it hopped on just shortly thereafter. The knitting was, as reported by everyone, fun and entertaining, the garter stitch is soft and squishy, and watching the blob become a jacket is on the whole quite satisfying. I'll let you be the judge of the final result:



I used size 5 needles and it's just a touch too big for the little dude right now, but he'll grow into it. The buttons are actual antique bone buttons that I bought at Brimfield in the spring, with the intention of making them into cuff links for my modified convertible, but that didn't really work out. I think they work perfectly here though. It took just under two hanks, and I'm debating daily if I have enough leftover to make a second pair of those brilliant bootees, and I'm already eyeing some other hello yarn in my stash to become a Tomten, this little guy is going to be zimmermaned out by the time he's 5!

Well, I guess it's time to pay attention

Election year is upon us. The primaries have started and what happens from here on out actually matters, so I guess it's time to pay attention. For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, I'm a democratic. I guess I've always been a democrat, but I only changed my official party status from my original choice of unaffiliated around the time we moved into our house (July 2004), so this is my first presidential primary. I was unaffiliated because when I was 18 I felt I didn't really understand the differences between the parties to choose, so not choosing was the more responsible decision at that time. I always voted, no matter what state I was temporiarly inhabiting when an election came around, if I couldn't go to the polls I voted absentee, but never before in a primary. Until this morning I actually thought that I wouldn't have to vote in the primary until the summer. It turns out that really I have to do it next month. So time to pay attention.

Like everyone else in the world I have heard many of the sound bites, seen snippets of the debates, some interviews on the daily show, etc. I whole heartedly no not watch the news, I hate it; it is depressing and life is too short to be depressed on a regular basis. I do listen to NPR almost daily, but my commute usually misses the peak newscasts and instead we hear the interesting stuff. Typically, we hear one interesting story and spend the rest of the commute discussing it so I guess I don't really listen to NPR either. I have formulated rudimentary opinions of the top candidates, but I'm still unsure of who to vote for.

Paul's blog post this morning did prompt me to spend a little time pursuing it more. The glassbooth quiz aligns me most closely with Kucinich (87%). I don't know anything more about him than that, and it's clear to me that he will not be the nominee, so he won't get my vote. Next up was John Edwards (85%) followed closely by Hillary Clinton (83%). Obama and Richardson came in tied at 81% aligning with my views. These were the four I had already narrowed it down to anyways, and a 4 percent span on a survey like this isn't enough to make up my mind. I went to the more detailed results, which tell you how well each candidates views align with your own on the key issues. The only topic that got a complete disagree for all five candidates was gay marriage. No candidate will come out and support same sex marriage, but all support civil unions. I personally don't see the difference, it's just semantics. If a civil union supplies all the same rights as marriage, why can't we just call it marriage? Because it wouldn't be recognized by a church? I wasn't married in a church, does that mean I only have a civil union? I'm a smart gal and I just can't get my head wrapped around the nuance's of this issue. Apples to apples in my book.

So really, all glassbooth proved is that I'm a democrat. Granted they figured it out in 10 minutes and it took me 8 years, but no real new material to work with.

I have 30 days to make a decision on which bubble to fill in.

So I guess it's time to pay some more attention.

Another year

Well, the holidays have come and gone. They were, as always, a whirlwind of family and friends. And, as always, I am just as happy to see them go as I was to see them come. So what's new in my life. Well a lot of things and nothing much at all.

The nephew, gets cuter by the day, and he's so well behaved he's almost got me convinced to maybe think about providing cousins for him to play with someday. Then I remember that I don't cook, don't clean and often forget to feed myself, so infant care might not really be the best option at this particular time in my life. But he is pretty damn cute.

This time of year is always filled with visits from friends as well, and it's always best when them come bearing big happy news: Jr and his lovely wife are having a baby. Krista is getting married, and I'll happily be serving as a bridesmaid :) So congratulations all around.

I, myself, have no big news to share, but I do have a couple of irons in the fire on the job hunt side that give a glimmer of hope, which, I think is a good way to start the new year: looking forward to the new adventures it can bring.

Oh yea, I won yarn! More info on that later.