Kiss My Knits!

my status

my team status

infection status

game status

I predict a quick death for myself. But we’ll see.

You may or may not have seen the video of the U.S. soldiers teasing Iraqi children with a water bottle. If you have a low tolerance for human cruelty, I’d recommend against watching it.

Almost as bad as the fact that they did this in the first place is the fact that they decided it was funny enough to capture on video and share. Jerks. I imagine they didn’t think that someone it was forwarded to would put it on YouTube, or that it would wind up getting the publicity it has.

However! The good news is that people at the Pentagon saw the video and are now investigating. (Link to another blog). Good. I only had the stomach to watch the video once, because it made me so angry. Let’s hope there are some consequences for these assholes.

That’s not fair! I use my power for evil, honest I do!

Aw, nuts.

This large .pdf file is a catalog of a freakin’ incredible showbiz auction. Radar’s cap from MASH, the Mr. Pointy stake from Buffy, Tonto’s tunic from The Long Ranger, the throne chair from The Lion In Winter, contestant jackets from Truth or Consequences, Minnie Pearl’s straw hat, Elvis’s wedding ring… it just goes on and on. For the Trek enthusiast, there’s a uniform worn by Captain Picard, the name plaque of the starship Voyager, and plenty of RKO props like a chair used original Trek AND Citizen Kane.

It’s like someone turned Hollywood upside down and shook it, and this is what happened to fall out. Unbelievable.

Tonight was “curriculum night” at Emily’s school, so we went up there to cut stuff out and make a little spelling game, and generally socialize at the school. While we were there, Emily’s teacher told me that Emily had made a picture in art that was so good she got to take it to show to the principal, so that if Emily told me she went to the principal’s office, I shouldn’t be concerned, since it was a positive thing.

Well, we didn’t have any issues there, but when I asked Emily what she drew, she said she drew herself on the playground with her friends. So I assumed that’s what she’d drawn in art.

Nope. She had played with sidewalk chalk during outdoor recess. She actually drew herself on the playground with her friends. Dangit, I was so close to interpreting it right! Well, no harm done. I still haven’t seen this beautiful picture, but I look forward to it.

(Boots-boots-boots-boots-movin’ up an’ down again!)

Actually, Kipling not withstanding, it’s been an excellent day for feet!

I got a phone call from my mother. She has a store credit at Wide Shoe Warehouse. She’d buy a pair of shoes, get them home and realize they weren’t quite right, and take them back for credit (the store doesn’t offer refunds). Then she’d get another, slightly more expensive pair and have to take them back too. Long story short, she wound up with a big ol’ stack of receipts offering credit, and a growing frustration at actually finding any shoes there that she’d actually keep. Since I also have wide feet, she snagged me and we went shoe shopping. Normally I hate shoe shopping, but this was actually fun. And I wound up with the little beauty of a low boot at left. Well, I wound up with two of them, but that’s probably implied. Size 8 1/2 WW and they fit like a dream. Thanks, Mom!

As for the socks, I did the gusset and am ready to plow through the foot portion. It’s a good knit when I want to just do a row or two of something different. I’m enjoying it. I’m also a little worried that I’ll have enough yarn to make it to the toe, but I suppose we’ll see, eh?


On the Jayne front, about five more kit orders came in today. People who must have a Jayne by Christmas are bravely knitting their own. Godspeed, brave crafters!

Finally, the weather’s been so good that I’ve spent a fair amount of time outdoors with my daughter lately. Here’s a piece of sidewalk art from yesterday. This is Ava, the Cold Elf. Note the snow, the hat, and also the pointy ears.

Have a great night!

So the makers of An Inconvenient Truth offered 50,000 free copies of the DVD to the National Science Teachers Association for free use in their classrooms. The association turned them down. And it’s looking suspiciously like they did it at least in part because they didn’t want to place “unnecessary risk upon the [NSTA] capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters.” One of whom, apparently, is Exxon-Mobil.

http://consciousearth.blogspot.com/2006/11/inconvenient-truth-squeezed-from.html

Grrrrrr……

So apparently there are significantly more requests for items on http://www.booksforsoldiers.com than there are people able to fill them this holiday season, so the site sent out a message to registered volunteers asking them to be sure to check out the boards. So I did. And there’s a request from someone who says it’s getting too cold to go out in the mountains anymore and do things outdoors, and could someone please send some Apple games to save himself and his buddies from winter boredom?

Apple games? This looks like a job for Tvini! Some of the stuff may be a little older, like original Warcraft, but they’re still plenty fun. I figure my closet should last him until Spring.

One trip to the Mac store later, I’m up and running again. There was just no way that old keyboard was ever going to work again.

I honestly believe that I’ve become more clumsy recently. I’m not sure what’s up with that, but it’s beginning to move past funny and into worrying. While still being funny, natch. It’s not like this is the first keyboard I’ve destroyed. In fact, I think it’s the sixth over my lifetime of computing. My husband the comedian suggested I ask about a bulk discount. I, on the other hand, think I just need to give up liquids entirely.

I wore my Glarkware Atari switch shirt to the Mac store, and the guy behind the counter commented on it. Then the guy to my right commented on it too. You have to be, shall we say, “of a certain age” to get it, since by the time the most recent crop of gamers came along, there were no primitive little switches to slide on the back of your TV. Then that got the clerk to reminiscing.

“My Dad worked at IBM, so we played some PC games. I’m talking about old ones, like this one that didn’t have any pictures. There’d be an ogre in front of you, and you had to attack it. If you wanted to get the key under a rug, you had to type out “lift rug” and you had to get it just right, too! Man!”

“Like Zork?”

“YES! THAT’S IT! ZORK! Oh, if I wasn’t married, I’d kiss you. I was going to have to go in the back and look it up, it was going to bother me all night.”

So we shared a little text game moment there, too. Wish I’d remembered to tell him that you can download those games for free now.

Good times, good times.

Hats up for: CA, MI, and NM.

Ihavespilledyetanotherdrinkinmykeyboard.

Asyoumayhavenoticed,thespacebarishistory.

Doublecrap.