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Tuesday Project Roundup: Test
I had an idea and some fabric I didn’t care about and Joann stores had Simplicity patterns at $1. So I tried making one of those “waterfall cardigans” with an idea to wear it to yoga.*
Holiday
Yesterday was Veterans Day and the end of three days of snow. I heard this song on KRCL as I was driving home Sunday and it was a really good pick (thanks, Linda on Sunday Sage). The Veterans Day part doesn’t start until about 4:10 but all of the song is brilliant (“the kids are strapped down like a half laod of pipe” in the back of the car). I wouldn’t expect less from my almost-boyfriend James McMurtry.
Happy Birthday, Carl Sagan
Today is the birthday of my science boyfriend Carl Sagan. It’s hard to narrow down what I want to say about him, or pick a favorite quote, because how can you say that this:
There was a time when the stars seemed an impenetrable mystery, but today we have begun to understand them. In our personal lives, also, we journey from ignorance to knowledge. Our individual growth reflects the advancement of the species. The exploration of the cosmos is a voyage of self-discovery.
is more inspiring than this?
Even The Writer’s Almanac gave him a mention today:
Because he had done extensive research on nearby planets, NASA hired him as an advisor for a mission to send remote-controlled spacecrafts to Venus..In preparation for the mission, Sagan was shocked to learn that there would be no cameras on the robotic spacecrafts, called Mariner I and Mariner II. The other scientists thought cameras would be a waste of valuable space and equipment…Sagan couldn’t believe they would give up the chance to see an alien planet up close[…]
Sagan lost the argument that time, but he won over NASA eventually. The Mariners were the last exploratory spacecraft ever launched by NASA without cameras. He contributed to the Viking, Voyager, and Galileo planetary exploration missions, and his insistence on the use of cameras helped us get the first close-up photographs of the outer planets and their moons.
I think that this latest image from Curiosity–on THE SURFACE OF MARS, fer crissake–reflects his legacy.
My Friend Wrote A Book (And I Edited It)!
My oldest friend, career and boyfriend adviser, portfolio builder, and fellow viewer of the Birdemic live event has written a book! In her non-Birdemic watching time she’s a super-savvy business owner, and the book reflects what she’s learned as her company builds mobile apps.
It’s not at all technical, don’t worry; it just gives you what you need to know before you get involved in an app project. My friend is a really entertaining writer and I found the info very useful as a background for my own field–and for the modern world in general.
Check out the book’s site here: www.buildingamobileapp.com. There is a launch party for it tomorrow night at another friend’s new rare book gallery downtown. Bring your Kindle/device with a Kindle app and you can get a free edition of the e-book!
Whew
It’s over. And I’m trying not to have too much schadenfreude about Romney backers threatening to move to Canada or Mexico, because that was the liberal reaction to Bush’s 2004 re-election, too.
I’m thrilled about more than just the president: Voters in Maine and Maryland approved a measure to make same-sex marriage legal in those states, the first time the issue was at the ballot and not in the legislature. And voters in Minnesota voted down a proposed amendment to make gay marriage illegal. Well done, people of M-states.
Plus, Todd “Legitimate Rape Doens’t Get You Pregnant” Akin and Richard “Rape Pregnancies Are A Gift From God!” Mourdock have not won re-election. Well done, every thinking human who realized what utter bullshit these two were spouting.
So yeah, I feel good. I feel that hate didn’t carry the day like I was afraid it would. And I feel really happy I don’t have to stockpile birth control between now and January. We may have a long way to go, but I’m proud of America right now.
Tuesday Project Roundup: Tiny Tolkein
Skyler’s sweater is finally done! It came out somewhere between “Hobbit child” and “Oxford scholar who writes about hobbits.” I can’t wait to see it on him.
I don’t know if I have that many knitters reading along, but here are some knitterly details:
- Pattern: Duck Soup, in the 2-3 year old size
- Yarn: Berroco Vintage Chunky, really nice for a wool/acrylic blend (I wanted it to be machine washable)
- Toggles: from M&J Trimming in NYC, sewn on with a leather needle in my trusty sewing machine
Get Ready To Vote
I let early voting pass my by but I’ll be out tomorrow morning to participate. And I’ll keep this in mind, from The New Yorker’s endorsement of Obama (all emphasis mine):
Romney, despite his pose of chiselled equanimity, has pledged to ravage the safety net, oppose progress on marriage equality, ignore all warnings of ecological disaster, dismantle health-care reform, and appoint right-wing judges to the courts. Four of the nine Supreme Court Justices are in their seventies; a Romney Administration may well have a chance to replace two of the more liberal incumbents…The rightward drift of a court led by Justices Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito—a drift marked by appalling decisions like Citizens United—would only intensify during a Romney Presidency. The consolidation of a hard-right majority would be a mortal threat to the ability of women to make their own decisions about contraception and pregnancy, the ability of institutions to alleviate the baneful legacies of past oppression and present prejudice, and the ability of American democracy to insulate itself from the corrupt domination of unlimited, anonymous money. Romney has pronounced himself “severely conservative.” There is every reason to believe him.
And I’m also going to have this ready to read Tuesday if I need it.
Friday Unrelated Information
1. This video of ladybugs taking off is like a Mary Oliver poem. And also very soothing.
2. Enjoy a big list of all the “uh oh!” moments from infomercials as animated gifs. My favorite is below: