The Great Mystery!!

Ok, I've been thinking about this rather a lot, and I got a lot of nice comments from the quilt pictures and all that, and a lot of people I've talked to before and since seem to be of the impression that it is just a gut-wrenching nightmare to make a quilt.

Bah. Not all that hard at all. Especially if you keep firmly in mind the fact that you WILL make mistakes, there WILL be spots where the points do not match exactly decide to meander all over several continents but nowhere near where they are supposed to be, and NOBODY ELSE WILL NOTICE.

Right now, may I just interrupt myself long enough to say THANK THE GODDESS that this stupid Blogger saves for you whenever you stop typing, because some idiots who shall, of course, go nameless *cough*sewmouse*cough* might just decide to close the damn window instead of minimizing...

Right. Ok. Back to the quilt thingy.

So - In the interest of being crafty without actually having to cut fabric, I am thinking I will post a "mystery quilt" here. This will not be some new, fancy, never-before-seen pattern, it will be pure, simple, basic patchwork with no real tricky bits. Something even a guy could do... *winks at the SO and ducks*

In the process, I can show all the little tricky bits that make it fun and also keep it "easy". I'll put a couple of different methods of finishing, so that you can choose your own difficulty.

The world needs more quilts. Quilting takes time, keeps your hands busy, leaves a residue of heartwarming coziness and anything that does all that is certainly bound to increase the peace in the world as it increases in production - yah?

So... Starting Sunday (yes, I shall actually BLOG ON A WEEKEND) - I will put up a weekly post in very, very, small baby steps - that will eventually lead to a quilt large enough to wrap up in for TV watching.

Thoughts? Flames? Ideas? Bad Lawyer Jokes?

News is No News to Those Who Know News

Another 28 baby tomatoes and 3 big ones. This month has been an absolute dream in terms of self-grown healthy veggies. I'm so spoiled, I don't think I'm going to be able to stand the months and months to come with only supermarket cardboard tomatoes!

I read on John Good's "Left in Aboite" about AT&T unilaterally deciding that lyrics sung by Pearl Jam at Lollapalooza that denigrate the Commander Guy should be CENSORED from airplay. Linky Thingy This morning it appears that AT&T is backpedalling like mad, Oh, it was an OUTSIDE VENDOR... they did NOT tell them to censor that!!! OH my goodness, OHNOEZ!!! *smirk*

As if I needed any MORE proof that GWB is planning to be the Kim Jong Il of the former USofA. Dear Decider is already censoring the media, now he's censoring the songs... WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED???

In other news - Laura Bush, and Jenna are writing a childrens book that supposedly pushes the "joy of reading". How about the "JOY OF NOT BEING SUBJECTED TO CENSORSHIP, Laurie? Of course, it HAS to be a childrens book - so the Dear Decider is able to fucking READ it.

Ahh, another bank statement to balance. Goddess, I love this. No - seriously! It's my favorite thing to do in my job. It's kind of like a treasure-hunt or a crossword puzzle. Just when you think you have it all 100% - something goes wonky and you have to reassess. I love it. Soooooo much more fun than account analysis or AP coding.

Tomorrow and Sunday are supposed to be badass hot here. If it gets too bad, I'll leave the cats some ice water and take off to the cineplex and see that Harry Potter film - or maybe the Bourne thingy. My personal movie reviewer (*waves at Lea*) has recommended both of them. At the very least it keeps me cool for the 2 hottest hours of the day. It has been cooling off nicely at night, so no complaints THERE.

Take care, eat chocolate - and remember:

A day without sunshine is like... Night.

528 days

Interesting Things from the Interwebs...

Everybody in the UK is writing a book. And getting it published. And they're all essentially compilations of their posts from their blogs. Dayum.

I need to write a better class of posts, I suppose. Not that I disagree with a LARGE number of them. Tom Reynolds from Random Acts of Reality for instance, has an interesting topic (although I really think Kal does an equally excellent job), and writes well. I'm sure his blog makes a grand book, and just wish I could get it here via Amazon without dealing with the asshat book re-sellers who want $12 for the book and $20 for shipping.

On the other hand, we have some goofball guy who is cruising chatrooms as a female ("loopylisa21f") and behaving stupidly and then using these "chat logs" as the fodder for his literary work. He also has been promoting this venture by co-opting time on other people's blogs. The really sad bit is that loopylisa21f isn't all that entertaining. Certainly not funny enough to be getting the kinds of reactions that the folks allowing him to co-opt their blogs are allegedly having ("hillarious" said one - "funny stuff" said another). I still have the KOOCHD transcript, which is 100,000 times funnier than anything I've seen this dude come up with - and the infamous coffee-chat from years, and years, and years ago - that still cracks me up. This guy is a novice, and not all that amusing.

In other news...

Some guy tried to smuggle his pet monkey onto an airplane under his hat. I thought ALL livestock had to travel in the plane's tummy. Since when do they let little doggies on in doggie-handbags, or monkeys in hats? FFS. You can't even bring toothpaste on the airplane, but you can bring things with TEETH?????

Yesterday I picked 43 baby "cherry" tomatoes off the 2 small bushes, and 3 mid-size ones off the larger bush. If this continues, I may have to make some pasta sauce from scratch. I've always wanted to try that - never had enough tomatoes to do it. This could be my year - although peeling all those itty small tomatoes would be quite the chore...

Off to run checks - TTYL

530 days

Meet George Jetson.. Dodododododo doodleydoo...

Wow, already... I figured it would be long long after I'm dead and gone before we saw Jetsons style commuter vehicles... I was WRONG!! *grin*

I want one.

And then I want it to fold up into my briefcase.

531 days

For Jules

Missions Accomplished:

Finally I have managed to do 3/4 of the "get this done this weekend" chore list. The worst bit was working up the mental gumption to wash off the louvers on the bifold door that leads to where the furnace lurks. I know this sounds stupid - but every time that I'd think about getting out some cleaning supplies and tackling it, I'd find 20 other things that just HAD to be done first...

Saturday I woke up determined. I went down and filled up a bucket with cleaning solution and threw in a clean "shop rag" and started in. Before breakfast. Before coffee. Before laundry...

In all, I think it took me about 20 minutes to really carefully clean all the louvers and wipe down the door, getting rid of the dust and cobwebs and grime. Hardly any time at all, really. Why is it that something that really is NOT a huge undertaking can be so hard to actually force oneself to BEGIN?

Wasps have invaded the tube for my garden gate. This is an issue. I despise flying stinging critters. I don't mind bumblebees, or even honeybees, although I will not tolerate them INSIDE my house, but wasps and hornets and the like are disgusting. I had a bit left in the can of wasp/hornet insecticide, so I sprayed it into the tube this morning. Not one, but TWO of the icky things came out of the tube, then had the temerity to die while STILL HANGING ON TO THE TUBE. This suxxors and doth not swallow. I believe I shall have to stop at the Ace Hardware on the way home and buy another container of the insecticide, and murder any more of them that may be hiding in the tube, as well as spraying off the two that are hanging there. Damn bugs.

What is it with tubes anyhow? Damn things build their muddy little nests inside all kinds of tubes - especially clothes-line tubes and such. Bugs with a "round" fetish. *shudder* Gah I hate those things.

AC update - I had the guys I bought the AC unit from out AGAIN to try and find the freon leak. They hung themselves over the unit and grunted a lot, hung themselves over the furnace and grunted a lot - but in the end they claimed that the leak was in a pipe that goes "through the concrete under your house" and that they couldn't replace that without either 1) tearing up my entire floor and much of my cabinetry, or 2) running an exposed line through the bathroom, behind the washer & dryer and then along the bottom of the vinyl siding and under the back door, or 3) tearing up my entire soffit inside the house to run the line along side the ductwork.

All this for... the meagre sum of... 1200 bucks.

Fuck that.

Fans are cheap to run, and work fine. Come October/November I'll contact 2 or 3 other HVAC contractors and get a bid on what it would cost for THEM to run a line from the "A-Coil" to the outside unit - during the OFF season. Until then, I have an exceptionally expensive paperweight in my back yard. I'm pissed off. But nothing I can do, so I'll just deal with it. Besides, there's 10000 other small things I can do and fix up around the place. Still need to get a key to the meter room, however.

In fact... I think I'll go call about that right now.

Oh, and TFWY - Mission Accomplished, Dude. Will send him another next Monday. In fact, I may make it a regular Monday thing.

532 days

Mental Vomit

Why is it that every few days Google or Blogger or whatever this is anymore decides to FUCK UP and not post my posts so that they can be seen???? Can I please just get a name so I can hit somebody? This is very unpleasant.

Dear Vendor. Our terms with you are "Pay on Credit Card". Why then, are you sending me a statement that says our invoices are over 120 days old??

Praytell, Why is the truck driving in the "passing lane" that can't seem to manage to get itself out of first gear? At rush-hour?

Guilty pleasures - the Pedicure! Oh my goodness feet feel better when they are nicely pedicured with pink toenails. Fake Florida Lawn Flamingo Pink. I noticed that the other ladies who were also having this service were also about my age. Perhaps this is an acquired joy? I do know that I never really thought about it much as a teen/tween. Feels so good to lay back in the chair and let someone else mess with all the nasty little cuticle bits. Worth every penny.

I think I shall go in search of some chocolate ice cream tonight. A small container should last a few weeks, and hopefully it will be enough to satisfy this chocoholism I'm developing. Damn the change.

Emptied a bucket of bleach-water onto the patio this morning. Did not realize until I got in to work and at my desk that it had splashed on my nice grey pants. I suppose that if I embroider flowers on them I can cover up the nasty splotches. *sigh*

535 days

All the bridges falling down, falling down, falling down...

Was it not just fairly recently that a bridge fell down in California? Double-decker thing, kind of like when the Oakland one did during the earthquake? I seem to remember this. I'm sure Kvatch will correct me if I'm wrong.

The collapse of the bridge in Minnesota as well has gotten me to thinking about the infrastructure of our country. An infrastructure that is old, and crumbling. Remember the incident with the flooding of the old tunnels underneath the Loop when the Chicago River breach occurred?

The part of this that has me unhappy is that Leandra was on the phone with me last night and mentioned (must have seen a crawl on CNN or something) that the cost of the Debacle in Iraquel has now exceeded 1 TRILLION dollars.

"Oh my god, that's terrible.. how many IS a Brazilian, Rummy?"

We can't afford to pay for Bush's Folly - and the money we will spend on that is money that SHOULD have been spent to help shore up and maintain and upgrade our country's faltering infrastructure. The state of the Borman Expressway and the constant construction thereon should be a clue to anyone with half a brain or more who needs to get from Michigan to Chicago.

Quite honestly, given this state of affairs, I am beginning to wonder about the sanity of Senators Clinton, Obama, McCain, Edwards, Mayor Gulliani, et al. Why would ANY sane individual want to take on the HORROR that this country is on the brink of achieving under the Bush Regime?

Sure, there is a slim chance of achiving a miracle and becoming nigh on to a "god" in the eyes of the world - but there are overwhelming odds in favor of the exact opposite and total failure, economic collapse, infrastructural collapse, famine, disease, plagues, locusts...

536 days

Back to Square One

Our dear friend Mr. Farty has asked the bloggie question "What got you started blogging?", and requests answers.

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

No, wait. That's the beginning of Star Wars.

A long, long time ago in an at-the-time amazing new toy called the "Internet", I found this place called "The Palace" - a revolutionary (at the time) spin on the traditional "chat room" - a graphical alternative to the mass of scrolling text that was the main feature of A-OHELL's claim to fame (other than their annoying blue download lines... am I the only one to remember THAT atrocity?)

In this place, I encountered a number of folks with whom I still maintain contact today. One of them was Kal, a nice young man from Scotland who was in school at the time, and who eventually went to work for the Courts, and then became an ambulance guy.

As with all good things, the heyday of the Palace came and went, the teenyboppers discovered it and destroyed that which was an adult place and turned it into a "L33+-Sp33kz" nightmare - and we all (mostly) left.

Kal resurfaced with a blog. I don't think it was "Trauma Queen" at that point, but I might could be mistaken. I read it daily, but didn't comment because I didn't know what to say. Kal and I still kept in touch some with ICQ and e-mails and stuff.

One day IIRC, I couldn't find Kal's blog - and I asked him about it and he told me he didn't think I read it because I never commented. He sent me his new URL, and I started to comment often.

About 2 years ago, I decided that I'd try my hand at it. WTF - can't be all that hard, right? Just type a lot. So I did. The whole "blogger" bit was easy to work with, and the price was right. I didn't think anyone would ever actually READ it...

Imagine my surprise when I started to get comments from folks I didn't know. I'd "clicky" back thru their links and read THEIR blogs. Some of them were positively BRILLIANT. Some of them were... interesting. Many of them had lists of other blogs to visit. Kal's had such a list, and I clicked-thru and found Croila, who led me to Jules and Peacechick Mary, who lead me to Kvatch and John Good and so on, and so on,...

Eventually I felt brave enough to do some minor editing on my "template" myself - yes, those ARE my eyes up there. The little mouse avatar is the one I used to use most of the time back in the "Palace" days. I have no clue where it is from, other than that I found it sitting in a "used avatars" room and decided it worked. The Storm At Sea on the right was made using "Paint" during a moment of supreme boredom. The quotes are random thoughts - except for the one by Amelia Peabody Emerson... that one is from a book, and still strikes me as hillariously funny for reasons that I've gone into before and don't choose to type up again.

There ya go, Mr. Farty.

537 days

Crusaders

I think that the majority of my LGBT friends who read here are not old enough to remember Anita Bryant. I'll give you the quick & dirty lowdown, you can google for more - the things I'm talking about here all happened in the 1970's and early 1980's.

Anita Bryant was a celeb of some kind - but by the time she became involved with the Florida Orange Growers, she was older and no longer very marketable. She featured heavily in their advertising schpiels and helped popularize the phrase "A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine".

Anita Bryant was also a bigotted bitch who hid behind her "Christianity" in order to promote her bigotry against homosexuals. She became very vocal - very nastily vocal - and at one point even advocated murder of gay individuals - all in the name of "Goodness" and "Christianity".

Eventually the Florida Orange Growers dropped Ms. Bryant as spokeswench, due to her negative impact on the sales of Florida Orange Juice. The boycott worked.

At the time, one of my closest friends, "Dippy" (R.I.P.), a gay man whom I had met during college, was living in California and involved with a man who was very active in the gay rights movement. Dippy and I had always had a "live and let love" attitude toward our differing sexual orientations, and had never had a problem with each other. He knew how HORRIFIED I was at the bigotry and nastiness coming from the Christian Conservatives, and that I had helped support the orange boycott, and believed even then that just because he preferred men didn't make him less human or less able to love. Remember, I grew up LCMS, and my parents were EXTREMELY religious.

One night I got a phone call from Dippy. He was pumped up, had just gotten back from a rally that he had attended with his S.O., and apparently forgot to whom he was speaking. "You know" he said "one of these days the world will change, and the gays will have the power, we will be able to make the laws and right the wrongs. We'll put the breeders in their place and they'll take the position they SHOULD have - they're only good for making more gays anyhow!"

I found a way to end the call gracefully - I'm not sure how.

The next day I wrote him a very long letter. I told him how disappointed I was to hear that he thought I was nothing but a "Breeder" and good for nothing but making babies to turn out gay. I told him I thought we were closer friends than that, and that his saying something like that - dehumanizing straight people - was the equivalent of what Anita Bryant was doing - in reverse.

I followed a link on a friend's blog to a site run by a college-aged woman who is struggling with the concept of being able to accept herself as a fat person, and where she questioned whether she could still belong to the "self acceptance" group of fat people if she were looking to diet with the goal of losing weight.

On in the comments to her post, one individual told her flat out - no. If you want to lose weight, then you are not fat accepting and essentially went to great lengths to ostracize her, and anyone who agreed with her, in much the same way as Dippy had begun to ostracize "Breeders". When I spoke up and said that there are MANY reasons for being on a diet - including things like having Type II Diabetes and not wanting to have the doctors cut your feet off, he became very belligerant, and defensive - and offensive.

There are people out there who want to change the world. Who want to make this place a better place for everyone. People who want to end racism, sexism, fatism, religious bigotry, hate, war, lies, the bush presidency, poverty...

People... please... listen to me. The way to make this happen is NOT by ostracizing and alienating those who support your position, but who are not precisely the same as yourself. Accept the small victories. Do not expect everyone to be on the same page as yourself - understand that there will ALWAYS be some who are more enlightened than you - and some who will be less. Be patient with those who are struggling to "see the light" in terms of social or spiritual change and who are ON YOUR SIDE.

I am the first to admit that I lose my patience with stupid people. Especially stupid people who try to flaunt their "intelligence". Stupid people who claim knowledge they do not have - then turn around and pretend they were saying something else when you call them on it. I work at it sporadically, but usually I just move on. Personal flaw? Yeah. Something that is a priority for me at this moment? No - because you can change the world in some ways, but you can't make an idiot smarter.

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