tychoish, now without a net

Love it is an awful thing and beauty is a blossom, and if you want your finger bit, just poke it at a possum. Glory to the meetinghouse, and glory to the stable, and glory to the little girl, the one that they call Mabel.

The above are lines from a Old Time-ish song/tune that I’m generally fond of. If you were wondering, but you probably won’t.

Just for the purpose of meta-talk, I’d like to note for the record that I always write blog entries in an MS Word document, and then copy and paste them into the blog script. This is because I fear for posts that don’t have the benefit of my spell check, and because I like to write blog entries in a few sessions. Perhaps this is part of the reason why I don’t write that much: because I add another step. One of these days I’m going to be really daring and post without doing the word file step.

For those of you who are worrying about the progress of the stalled redesign, I’ve got a file which should help a lot from a dear friend, actually I don’t think he’s a dear friend, but he’s a swell guy (Matt). Soon, I promise.

Because this ended up as a really long post, which is really more of archival interest and because of the new bloging program that I’m using, I’m going to use an extended entry text cut thing. Anyway if you click on the (more) link that should follow this paragraph (or go to the permalink) then you’ll be able to read the rest of this post, which talks about computers and gear lust/purchasing plans, my housing situation for next semester, and knitting updates.) Continue reading Just Poke it at a Possum

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tagged: TealArt

I think its fair to say that I’ve been in a knitting funk of late. I’ve made a few hats, which have been nice to, but not terribly fulfilling, given that I have all the hats I could possibly want, and while I do plan to give a few away, I need a “finished hat” box (like my mom’s sock box) where you let finished projects sit for a while, so you can let go and give them away. This is ironic, given that one of the things I want to make (that I don’t currently have yarn for) is a sweater for someone else, but that’s different, because you’re making it specifically for someone else, in a style/fiber that you don’t particularly like (or feel suited to you).

No matter, so I made a few hats, started a 52 stitch garter stitch rectangle (why oh why?), knitted some more on the plain shawl that will never end, and just yesterday I started another sweater. It’s going to be a wool drop-shoulder pull over, with a cut neck a high collar. As is usual I’m debating how exactly to execute the neck. Steek for sure, clasps (rather than a zipper), and I think I’m going to put 1 inch of ribbing (1×1; to match the other edges) on either side of the cut steek. The other option is to put like 2 garter ridges (much narrower) on either side, which is about half as wide, and could be adapted to accommodate a zipper if I changed my mind. The one problem is that, without a zipper, the garter ridges probably wouldn’t counteract the inherent curl of the steek, and would therefore look crappy.

The wool I’m using is a grab bag of worsted weight wool, gathered from various sources. The bottom is this black yarn. From the vintage when Red Heart still made 100% virgin wool, obtained at a rummage sale, and from the same vintage, some more vintage yarn: Sears brand medium-light grey. Finally, I have some left over sheep colored fisherman’s wool (Lion Brand) this stuff is still available so if I run out and need to augment my supply, it’d be eight bucks at just about any craft store. I think it’s going to get a trip through my blue dye pot. I have a lot of stuff that’s going to get died blue: two hats, a shawl, this sweater, plus the never-ending shawl.

After this sweater, I have yarn enough for two more sweaters: an aran and plain (I think) pullover of some fun design, and countless shawls. I’m sort of turned off of shawls for a while. I think I thought that I could knit one shawl for every sweater I made, but I think I need to institute a 2 for 1 policy, other wise, the shawls just wont work out.

I have two knitting lusts at the moment. The first is to knit the Rams Horn cardigan from Meg Swanson’s Knitting. I might get some sort of plain worsted wool, but I think I should just come to terms with the fact that it’s going to be done in Icelandic Wool. It’s not that expensive, and I think my knitting deserves the right kind of yarn. This is an old crush, but I’ve done some color stranding work, just for grins, and I’m really pleased with it (and my abilities) so I have a renewed interest.

The second crush is on This Sweater. I’d want to do it with the cut neck, probably in the blue (second link) colorway. Melt. On the up side their so generously sized, that I could make the extra small and still have like eight inches of ease. The kits are ungodly expensive. There’s no other way to put it. Mind you, if you buy a Dale sweater from their US distributor, it’ll cost 3 times the cost of a kit. I’m going to see how long this crush lasts, and I don’t think it’ll take very much to keep me from buying the kit (because of the price), but at some point I’ll probably break down and get it as a reward for something. Lets say, right here, if I live through next semester and more or less run out of yarn, and have some sort of summer income, and have the money, I’ll do it.

Ok, so there’s your knitting update for the week. I’ll catch you all soon. I’ll keep you posted on the developments of my sweater as they have a habit of progressing pretty fast.

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In my feminisms class a few weeks ago we read an article by Chandra Talpade Mohanty concerning the ways that the western feminist discourse address and comments on the “third world.” Basically it commented on the Hegemony of western feminism as it determines who and what is oppressive for third world women, and thus constructs third world women, as uneducated, unaware, and ignorant of feminism. This is problematic and oppressive in of itself as western feminists use these perceptions as a way of reasserting imperialistic attitudes on the third world.

Connected to Mohanty’s argument is a discussion of the veil as worn by Islamic women. Many western feminists view the veil as an oppressive tool. And there are Islamic feminists who want to wear the hijab, who feel victimized by those western women who wish to abolish the veiling customs.

On a theoretical level I think the veil (as a product of Islam) should not be used as a method for liberation, at the same time on a practical level I can completely recognize the way in which a veil could be used as a way of maintaining a cultural identity. But I think this issue is complex and we can’t easily define in terms of a good bad dualism.

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tagged: TealArt

Ok, so the TealArt, is if nothing else, functionally established with it’s new set up. In retrospect I’m not really sure what we accomplished in the long run, or in the short run. Everything works as it should or more or less as it did. The administrative components are perhaps a bit more efficient, the way the categories are organized are a bit more logical. I think it’ll also be easier to manage in the long run.

The one thing I’m a bit disappointed in Wordpress for is the fact that they’ve dumbed it down a lot. Used to be, that this program was efficient, feature filled and really customizable. Now, the scripts add a lot of formatting related code that you have no control over, unless you go in to hack the core of the application. This isn’t cool. I want my data to be present in a pure manner, and if I want to format it, well then I’ll add the formatting code myself. Their approach probably makes the vast majority of websites more functional, standards compliant, and easier to manage, but it also breaks the holy content/display divide that needs to be a defined as possible. But it works. We’re going to get trackbacks and ping backs to work, and I have an email out about how to integrate the links/quotes and other sites with the main log. But for now it’s good. There’s a little more work that I’ll get to in a couple of weeks.

I need to do a little bit of this really analytical work every now and then to stay sane, the bad part is that it draws a lot of attention for the time that I’m enthralled. I’m free of it for now, but I’ll get back to it soon enough.

Moving on.

I think I have my schedule nailed out for next semester, I haven’t heard back from a couple of professors, and I think there are a couple of things that relate back to my 3 year plan that I want to have a little more nailed down, but I‚Äôm in a very good place I think. I’m going to take a natural history class (my last required science class) a weaving class, an upper level English/Gender studies class called (Writing Race and Sexuality), Statistics (for psych majors) and probably a Cross-Cultural Psychology class. It’ll be neat. Almost all of my transfer credit has come in, and I’m 3 hours away from sophmore standing (without the classes I’m taking now), and I should be able to make junior standing after next semester.

There aren’t classes today because of a really poorly organized symposium, which is a good break in the rhythm. The beginning of the week is always really killer, in one way or another. Either I’m insanely busy, or I’m insanely in a weird mood (this week), and usually by Wednesday everything irons itself out. It better.

I’m going to post this and go to lunch, in a moment, but before I go, let me leave you with this.

Everyday I see a situation that I think would make an insanely good vignette, or I see someone who would make a perfect character, or I get some sort of story idea that would just be amazing if I remembered it and wrote it down. Usually I don’t have my ibook with me to record such things (or even an index card,) so usually I just forget them and complain about how I have so little to write about. Well, ok, I’m sitting here, watching a guy who just needs to be written about.

He’s tall–6′3″ or something. He as this excruciatingly fashionable and suave air about him, except when he starts talking you kind of feel like he’s about 14. I think he went to an all boys boarding school, which could explain some of the social awkwardness. Right now he’s curled up into a little ball in a chair, across from me reading a book. We’re kind of sharing a foot rest, so I’m acutely aware of his nervous movements. He has an intermittent vacant look on his face, and the book he’s reading is a collection of case studies that I’m reading as well (for a different section of the class and clearly not at this very moment. Every now and then he looks at the door as if he’s waiting for someone and then looks out the window in this sort of dissocialize sort of way.

Before he left, he paged through the next four or five pages of the book, clearly checking to see how much he had left to read, and then left. He said good-bye to me, perhaps not as awkward as usual, but whatever. He’s a weird kid, interesting I suppose, how the presence he exudes by his appearance is so different from what he exudes both vocally and through his behavior.

Just notes and observations; I’m sure there’ll be other notes like this one every now and then.

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tagged: TealArt

Ok, So even though I said we wouldn’t do it. Even though I really didn’t want to do it. I did. We’ve compleatly changed databases, and CMS. This time you probably can notice the difference.

Eventually you probably won’t notice, but for now things are a little ruff and most of the functions don’t work or have been disabled while we get the other pages to work.

For a number of weeks, all the old pages will work, and all your old links should continue to function. Eventually they won’t but for now I’m leaving things up.

Just So you know.

Cheers, Sam

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tagged: TealArt

Ok, so here’s an update on my reading: I’m half way through the third wave book, and I’m done with the first section of the second wave book. The third wave book is pretty cool, it addresses a little bit of everything, and as my last entry expresses I’m not wild about the “ideal” capitalist inspired globalism. But conflict makes the discourse interesting and it happens. Anyway, as I was reading about the independent media websites, which these folks are pressing as being majorly important to the development of the third wave.

Big Yawn.

Basically they described MetaFilter which is at least in my mind the original collaborative news type site. They’re really easy to run through open source software, and there’s some sort of filter/longer news related website for everything, and there are a lot of more centralized collaborative type news sites like QueerDay that fit some sort of independent media model. But then maybe that’s just me. I’m a friend of Noah Grey, and I’ve been watching this weblog thing for years, so the proliferation of independent media on the Internet is something I’ve watched intently.

And while I like idealized anarchistic designed communities that end up working, I think there are ultimately problems with this. First of all, if there are thousands or even hundreds of sites built on a model (mefi, photologs, warblogs, punditblogs, etc.) then they loose their intensity, everyone sprouts the same shit, nothing new gets said, and I think ultimately the only people who read those types of blogs after a while are the other bloggers, under which conditions all you have a is a very disorganized and hard to follow discussion board which would probably be more efficiently accomplished with a single large discussion board. Or better yet, a Usenet group (but that’s just cause I’m a traditionalist).

While the situations described in the essay weren’t extreme, I’ve seen extremes (in terms of over proliferation). In terms of photoblogs, in terms of war blogs. I wasn’t around like some people I correspond with, to remember when there were only a very few web logs, but I do remember when movements at the forefront of the blogging world, were just a small number of malcontents. So maybe I’m jaded. Ha. Ok, So I’m jaded. At the same time, I have the feeling that if everyone is writing the same things, it gets condensed and retold too much, and the jems are too far and inbetween, unless youíre a communications researcher, or interested in this kind of thing (which I’ll admit to be from time to time) there’s too much to absorb at a raw level and you don’t gain anything by reading the super-condensed versions.

That I think is enough for now.

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