Archives—August 2008

August 1—Updated the Political Blog

I've updated the political blog. There's quite a bit for today, and even at that I had to truncate a lot of angry ranting.

I took some pictures of Bolie (the younger of my two cats); I'll post them tomorrow.

Yesterday I did some chores and caught up on The Daily Show and the Colbert Report, neither of which I'd seen all week. This evening I caught the season finale of Doctor Who. While watching all of the above, I did a lot of work on Ralf's hat; the progress is finally noticeably speeding up. Regrettably, the thing is getting out of control and is going to be like six feet long when completed. Whoops. Oh well; I'm fairly confident that it will be a big hit anyway. Actually, the more ludicrous it is, the more likely it is to go down well.

I talked to my old roommate Kirston for all of four seconds yesterday, trying to figure out what's going on with my mail. He sounded very tired and stressed; I hope he's getting enough rest (though that's doubtful). He's leaving for California on Sunday and said my mail will go out before then. I don't know how long he's going to be gone; probably not more than a couple of weeks. I wouldn't mind finding out so I'll know when I can mail him the stuff I've knitted, but Ralf's hat probably won't be done till Kirston gets back anyway.

August 3—Updated the Political Blog and Knitting Stuff

I updated the political blog and posted the project and pattern pages for Ralf's hat, though of course the images for the hat don't work yet. I've done a lot of work on Ralf's hat; it's nearly done. I expect to finish tomorrow. Then I'll have a monstrous number of loose ends to weave in (yipe), which will probably be worse than the knitting itself since I fucking hate loose ends. I haven't uploaded the pictures of Bolie yet because I was busy with Ralf's hat all day. Or rather, the pictures are uploaded; I just haven't created thumbnails and posted links yet. Here's a teaser. I love the look on his little face.

I took a break from job hunting to do a lot of chores this weekend, including vacuuming and dusting. I really ought to have more discipline and do this stuff more often; perhaps I could start writing reminders to myself to do it weekly instead of monthly. (Though that still beats my dad's neverly policy.) I figure if I make a habit of it, the dust won't collect, and my sinuses will thank me.

I'm planning on a much-needed update to the poetry section soon; I need to go through some of the stuff I've written over the last few months and post the better stuff. There's probably a lot more old stuff I could post, but given how shitty so much of it is, I don't want to overdo it.

I should also work on at least three stories for the KP section. Good Lord; I haven't completed a story since 2005; that's pathetic. I mean, I've written other stuff in the meantime, but still.

August 5—Updated the Political Blog and Knitting Stuff; Also, Poetry Update!

I updated the political blog for the last two days and made a page for pictures of Bolie. I'm really sorry I don't have any of him when he was only a few weeks old, but then again, he was mangy and beat up and scrawny at the time. So here are some pictures of the mostly grown up but nevertheless adorable Bolie; I also posted a few pix of Freefall and Bolie together. Anyway, I changed a lot of things around in the pix section, or at least, the pictures of the cats. I also went through and made a lot of minor changes in the code in every section of the site, but nothing that will affect the overall look. I was thinking about that, though; maybe give each section a slightly different look. I have heard some criticism for the site looking so bland, which I've always refuted by pointing out that all the rotating icons and fading links in the world won't stop anyone from looking like a jackass. Then again, I like pretty things; may as well give the site a few nice graphics. Sadly, that involves time and talent. Well, maybe just a shitty border will suffice.

I updated the poetry section. All the stuff that was there was a couple of years old, so I moved it into a separate section and posted some new stuff here. Half of it's moody personal shit I shouldn't be sharing with the world, but what the hell.

I finished Ralf's hat yesterday morning. The last several inches took only an hour, as opposed to the several days such length took at the beginning. It's a good feeling to be finished with the damn thing, but I'm dreading weaving in the loose ends because I know it will take such a long time. I've woven in half of them since yesterday morning. Ouch.

Anyway, I haven't done any job hunting the last few days since I don't want to spend more money on gas than I have to. I'm going to try to focus on doing that from home; online whenever possible and calling to check on the status intsead of going in person. I hope something turns up soon; I'm bored and hate being poor.

August 6—Yup. Another rant.

I'm not updating anything today; this is more important. I'd like to post a brief rant regarding the treatment of my friends . . . and myself.

Yesterday there was a proverbial last straw resulting in me ending a friendship of nearly a year. This person had something of a bully mentality who seemed to enjoy getting a rise out of me, sometimes to the detriment of my friends, mostly Kirston, though probably only because I talked about him most. This last straw actually didn't involve Kirston, but the two things leading up to it did. First, right before I moved into Kirston's, this person said I'd be paying my rent on my back, even though he knew that not to be true; there was never anything between us. Predictably, I blocked him until he apologized, which he did only after saying I was too sensitive. Time passed, and then he made a horrible, inappropriate joke about Kirston's service in Iraq. I was livid and snapped, "Don't fucking touch that. Seriously." He backpedaled pretty quickly, and things returned to normal, though I was still wary. I do not take lightly slanderous or hurtful remarks about my friends, particularly when they're Iraq veterans. My sense of morals or someone else's military service should never be subjected to that level of unfair treatment. I don't know whether it's jealousy or just somebody being a dick and not knowing where to draw the line, but either way, I will not put up with that nonsense. In other words, I don't have time to talk to people who talk shit about my friends. Go find somebody else to pester.

Anyway, yesterday, this person irritated me one too many times, and I ended up blocking him. As I have said before, I do not want to listen to people making offensive remarks about my friends or me. Blocking him on instant messenger did not prevent him from quickly sending me an email saying that blocking him still left me visible to him, so I should go invisible when pouting (his word, not mine). 1.) I don't think it's pouting if I don't want to continue to listen to bullshit from someone who's created issues in the past and been clearly told that I don't want it to recur. 2.) I'm not going to cater to him by going invisible and thereby missing anyone else who wants to IM me; that's absurd. Thusly, I remained online and blocked his email address.

So. A little more of the mystery of my reclusiveness and ever-shrinking social circle is solved. And, note to all considering e-mailing me: Use your common fucking sense and be nice. While I obviously won't tolerate being mistreated myself, I am far more vitriolic in defense of my friends. I couldn't tell you why, but I would defend a loved one with the last breath of air in my lungs, where an insult to myself I'm more likely to shrug off. History backs this up, but I'd rather not dwell.

*sigh* Moving on, then . . .

August 7—My problems suddenly look so trivial . . .

It's been an interesting evening. I didn't update the political blog as planned because two things happened: 1.) I finished weaving in all the loose ends of Ralf's hat and ran it through the wash, but it was still not uncurled enough to my satisfaction (damn stockinette stitch), so I pinned it to the living room floor to block it. 2.) I had to report a domestic disturbance down the street. I was blocking the hat when I heard something outside, so I went to let Freefall in, and then I heard shouting from about three houses down. I stepped quietly outside to listen and heard a woman yelling at someone, presumably a guy, though I couldn't see or hear him, to get his hands off her neck. I had my cel phone in the pocket of my robe, so I called 911 and reported it. There was a brief confusion over which suburb I was in (tiresome), and then they sent two patrol cars over. They arrived within five minutes, and I heard them banging on the door of the house in question and shouting "police department!" The occupants eventually opened up, and the guy (or whoever) was arrested, presumably for assault. Or at least, I saw one of the cops leading someone into a car. It was all down the street and in silhouette, so it was hard to tell. Anyway, I'm glad that's over. I'm also proud of myself for staying calm while on the phone to the police. I admit to a certain amount of pride in helping remove some abusive jerk from the streets, though he'll probably be released and in trouble again soon enough.

August 8—08/08/08

I like today's date. Anyway, I updated the political blog. I also made some minor changes to the archives section, but it all looks pretty much the same. I ought to get to work making the site look noticeably different, by which I mean nicer.

I'm almost done with Ralf's hat. As I said yesterday, I ran it through the wash, which usually does the trick for blocking, but this time it wasn't effective enough. I spray blocked it a couple of times, and it was still ever so slightly curled in, but it was close enough that I was able to start sewing the seam. I hate that the stripes inevitably don't match near the top, but it couldn't be helped. The seam otherwise looks good. I'm proud of my workmanship.

I decided that I should really be working on other knit projects now that I've got this effectively out of the way. I've started the Dead Kennedys shirt, meaning I've done a few rows of garter stitch border. I designed an awesome pattern for the logo; I think in a few weeks I'll have finished the shirt, and then I'll have a new pattern to post.

Aside from that shirt, I could finish Nich's scarf or my Irish cardigan, or I could get started on any number of other things: the Obama sweater, another hat or socks, SPCA charity stuff, a different sweater, a blanket . . . where to begin? I guess I should first work on the two things that desperately need finishing. There's no real reason I can't work on multiple projects at once, but I tend to tunnel vision on projects.

I spent much of the day looking for jobs online. I've called several places to which I've applied (heard a lot of "try again later" and "we're not hiring") and found some jobs with Leander Independent School District for which I might be qualified. I'm not overly optimistic about that, but we'll see.

August 11—Revenge Fail

And now, your regularly scheduled rant.

I don't want to get carried away, so I'll make an effort to keep this short.

I am quite tired of people being childish and petty, stirring up drama, and generally embarrassing themselves in a pathetic attempt to garner attention for themselves. It's a reminder to myself not to act that way; it shows me what that looks like and how bad I'd look doing similar things. It also tells me that I'm right not to waste my time on those people.

As you might guess, this is related to my recent ending of a friendship. Rather than just let it go, he chose instead to go to someone with whom he knew I didn't get along, befriend them, and then (surprise!) I got an e-mail from the third party telling me nobody likes me and I suck. Instead of being offended, I thought the whole thing was quite pathetic and sad. I can only feel embarrassed for both of them. I also realize how bad that behavior looks, and it makes me determined never to behave so badly.

Anyway, at least a couple of good things came of the above: I got rid of a jerk, and I realized how pathetic such melodramatic behavior looks.

Between dealing with the above nonsense (by which I mean ignoring it aside from subjecting it to mockery and derision in AIM chats with friends) and the fact that I want to go to bed now because I have a job interview with Linens 'N' Things tomorrow, I have no updates. Sorry.

August 12—I got a job!

Finally, a day free of other people's stupid crap. Long may it last.

So today I had an interview at Linens 'N' Things. I got the job, but it's only part time, so the search isn't over. They did offer me to start tomorrow, but as I'm going out of town later this week, they went ahead and moved it to Monday. That's good since it gives me time to buy the requisite black pants and white collared shirt I'll need. I'd prefer a job sans dress code, but whatever.

Anyway, I'm heading to Houston on Thursday with my friend Chris. There I hope to finally retrieve my mail from my old roommate's. I will also drop off the completed knitting projects for him and a couple of his friends before leaving. Oh God—I'm taking the Greyhound back. This terrifies me since there was of course recently a horrific murder on a Greyhound, and I fear a copycat. Thusly my plan is to make myself look like the most suspicious character on board, so I shall be traveling in my big black trenchcoat and carrying my army surplus backpack with an IRA patch stuck to it. The fact that I'll be knitting on the bus will probably detract somewhat from the above "plan." Oh well.

Anyway, speaking of knitting, I finished sewing the seam on Ralf's hat the other day, ran it through the wash one last time this evening, and there is now a picture for the project and pattern pages. I've done a minute amount of work on the Dead Kennedys shirt; I was thinking I might start some socks too, but I really need to finish a couple of other things first.

August 16—Just as a heads up, traveling across this state by bus is not advisable.

My trip to Houston was an incredibly time-consuming process. I left the house around 12:45, caught a bus at 1:23 to the UT campus, and waited on the East Mall for my friend Chris. Then I had to walk up to 21st and Speedway for him to pick me up, and then we headed to Houston. It was a quick trip mostly without traffic. Kirston called me en route and revealed that he'd actually sent me my mail two days ago. ! I was annoyed, to say the least, that he hadn't called me before I left, but eh. It's possible I would have made the trip anyway just to unload the knitting. Chris and I arrived at the River Oaks theatre around 5:40. I texted Kirston to tell him we were upstairs, and after a minute, he appeared—looking completely stressed out and exhausted. That rather took the wind out of my sails. So I talked to him for a minute, trying to convince him to get some rest.

Anyway, the trip home was . . . long. I knew I wouldn't be able to catch the 6:00 bus, so instead I planned to catch the 9:00 bus, only said bus had a layover till one o'clock. Chris and I went to the southwest Greyhound station, and the woman behind the counter said there was no such bus. We protested that it was on the website, left, and went to the Main Street location, which did have tickets. So I sat in the Greyhound station till one, mostly reading Slaughterhouse Five and watching the Olympics. Then I boarded the bus and departed, arriving back in Austin at four. I waited in the bus station for the first bus, which dropped me off at the UT campus, and then I took two more buses back to the park and ride. I finally got home around eight. So I did all that commuting for about two minutes' worth of conversation. It was worth it, though.

Today I finally got my mail. Kirston included a couple of little surprises for me: He has a bunch of bumper stickers around his house that say "MY America doesn't torture!", so he included one of those. He also included one of those DVDs of Ben Stein's essentially anti-Darwinist flick, Expelled. It was unexpected and sweet of him to include random stuff.

Anyway, I've updated the political blog for the last few days.

I'm looking forward to starting my new job on Monday. Actually, I'm looking forward to the paychecks. I've worked out how much to save in different categories (I'm saving for new glasses, a trip to the dentist, a motorcycle, repaying Kirston for some rent, possibly a laptop, and just regular savings), plus with the small amount leftover, I can buy yarn or other crafting supplies.

August 17—My mail arrived! . . . three months late.

I fixed a few errors in the recipes section, mostly style sheet problems or broken links. The chocolate chip cookie recipe is now available once again.

Today I went to Michael's to pick up a couple of knitting tools for the Dead Kennedys shirt I'm making—I had to frog the whole thing, actually; it wasn't turning out as snug as I wanted. Anyway, I filled out a job application at Michael's mostly out of habit. That store is not the one closest to my house, and my car's not reliable enough to make the trip (I discovered on the way home that it still can't handle the highway), so I'd have to take the bus. I'm still looking at jobs with UT or Leander ISD; that would be steadier and better paying, but I'll take what I can get in the meantime.

Tonight I watched the DVD of Expelled Kirston sent me. Yesterday I erroneously reported that it was the whole movie; it wasn't. It's a kind of behind-the-scenes thing furthering the propagandistic cause. I watched while grumbling obscenities at the hypocrisy and contradictions clearly evident just in the trailers.

And now, to bed since tomorrow is my first day at Linens 'N Things. I'll update about it next time.

August 21—Being sick sucks.

I've worked from 5 to close at Linens 'N' Things all this week and will again tonight. I have tomorrow off and will use it for more job hunting and recovering from a sore throat I began feeling last night. I thought it was just a sinus thing, but now my throat's killing me, so I bought some medicine and am making sure to get plenty of rest. Anyway, because of work, I've not been home to watch Hardball and Countdown at the regular airtimes, so I caught the reruns later and have now updated the political blog for the last few days, not that a whole lot has happened.

I fixed a couple of code errors in the tiny nonfiction stories section. I should really update that section more. I don't have all that many nonfiction stories to relate that I haven't already told somewhere else on the site, but I suppose I'll think of something. I could add more college stories or finally do something with the long-planned klutzy incidents section.

In knitting news, I've added the all-important guage to each pattern. For most of the patterns, it's not that important, but making a swatch of fabric before each project is too important not to include that.

I haven't recommenced the Dead Kennedys shirt, but I did start the hat for Greg's kid. I made a swatch and discovered, to my annoyance, that of course a cabled pattern means a tighter guage, so I'd have to cast on even more stitches than I would have needed anyway with the tiny yarn. I've worked about an inch of ribbing so far; it's going to take a while. I should work on Nich's poof scarf some more; it's almost done. I also want to finish the Irish cardigan before it cools off, plus I definitely want to make socks and a hat. I of course have many other projects in mind, but those are the most pressing.

August 22—Yep, it's Biden.

I have no other updates yet, I just want to be among the very very first to leak it to the Internet.

Yep, Biden is Obama's VP nominee. :-D

. . . Oh, all right, I'm far from the first to say so. Still. I got the text message less than two minutes ago. I could have probably beat the text message with Google, but I was busy with e-mail and didn't think of it.

I'm still sick; I haven't been this ill in a long time. Christ, I hate throat infections.

I've worked a bit more on the hat for Greg's kid, but as much of the work I did was done with a high fever, it may not have turned out that evenly. I'd like to make a hat for my friend Dom, too; but I'm having trouble coming up with a design. I don't want it to be a boring ribbed hat, and I don't think crazy color changes is really the way to go. We'll see.

August 26—It's a relief to be busy. Kind of.

My cold is getting better. Slowly. I've been taking plenty of medicine and trying not to get other people sick, but I may not have succeeded since I ended up staying two extra hours at work Sunday evening when somebody else called in sick.

I got a second job at PetCo; I start Sunday. I'll be working there Thursday through Sunday and at Linens 'N Things Monday through Wednesday, unless I get a job at a movie theatre. By an awesome coincidence, one theatre wants people available Monday through Wednesday 10–5, which would mean an end to Linens 'N Things. It's picked up a bit now that the training's ended and we have a new manager who seems cool, but I would rather work around movies in any capacity, even if it does mean riding the bus down there since it's too far for my shitty car to handle. But bus time = reading/knitting time, for which I'm rather pressed nowadays, so that works.

I've surprisingly NOT updated the political blog. With the Democratic National Convention in full swing, you'd think I'd be updating at fever pitch, but not so much. Jobs, you know. I might have more time tomorrow. As it is, it's already past my bedtime, so this is it for tonight.

August 29—New Jobs

My cold is mostly gone; it's just a cough now, albeit a fairly persistent one.

Last night was my last night closing at Linens 'N Things. I changed my hours of availability to only till five o'clock—purely to avoid the janitorial nonsense that comes with closing. No matter. I start my PetCo job on Sunday, plus I'm going to apply at a couple of bookstores.

I've updated the political blog, but only marginally. I've been pressed for time what with closing at Linens 'N Things and job hunting, more of which I'm about to do now.