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| How to make a small child happy the frugal way: 1) If you spot cheap stickers in a bargain bin, get them. Cheap is at least 100 per dollar or better. 2) If the stickers are on a strip, keep the strip when empty. 3) When child requests purchase of expensive ribbon-on-a-stick, or in the case of Peo yesterday, just complains about having nothing she wants to do in the backyard, tie the empty sticker strip on a stick. 4) Enjoy as child runs around the backyard like a crazy person, absolutely thrilled with her own ribbon-on-a-stick, which makes way better noises than the expensive kind anyway (the paper-plastic sticker strip goes THBBBTTTPPP when waved quickly). Plus who cares if the child is too rough with it? No sensible parent would let a child experimentally stick a silk or cloth ribbon into a thorny bush repeatedly, but with re-used waste materials, let 'em experiment! Woot! | ||||||
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Blatherings
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July 5th, 2009
July 3rd, 2009
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| Hahaha... Hey Doctor Who fans, heck out the photo Consumerist used on this story... | ||||||
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June 18th, 2009
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| Edible Wolverine. The face isn't right, but I guess we could settle for licking his chest hairs off... | ||||||
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June 10th, 2009
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| How deeply is my brain integrated with all things Internetty and how much of a glutton for punishment am I in terms of my crafting queue? I just saw this pattern on the newly posted Knitty and my immediate thought was, "I should email that to Peo to ask her if she'd like one." Peo does not have an email address. I do not have time to knit this anyway. At least, not to be ready for this summer, which is kind of like NOW. *headdesk* | ||||||
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May 31st, 2009
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| More quick copy and paste fun...I got email from a knitter who made an awesome mini Harry Potter using my Little Dudes basic pattern: http://simplejill.wordpress.com/200 I love, love, love it when someone does something cool with basics I've provided and does it on their own with their own creativity going wild. It's like I get a bit of a hand in an artist's creative act but don't have to do any hand-holding. | ||||||
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April 30th, 2009
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| Infodump time again. I know that some of this stuff is probably already old news. Oh well, I share what I can when I can... Consumer Info/Activism Stop the Cap! Fight Back Against Usage Caps for Cable, DSL, and Fiber Optic Broadband - A blog tracking protesting activity against Time Warner and other cable companies who want to impose pay-by-the-byte style Internet access. If you live in North Carolina, PAY ATTENTION TO THIS (and anybody else interested in broadband access rights should as well): Save NC Broadband.com - A city in NC has a government-run broadband service (it still costs money (as opposed to being taxpayer-funded_, but is run more like a regulated utility) that's working quite nicely for subscribers, but Time Warner Cable is claiming they can't compete against it and is trying to force the state legislature to ban such services. There's a bill up for vote on May 6, so residents should be calling their elected representatives for support. Costco offer would fix hot fuel - If you didn't already know, temperature affects how much gas you get for your dollar. Fuel pumps are averaged, so if you buy gas when it's hot out, you get less than if you bought it when it was cold. Costco is going to change its pumps and its purchasing habits to stop this so consumers no longer bear the brunt of this. They're breaking away from other retailers and the oil industry to do this. Yay Costco! Going Against the Trend, Nevada Lawmakers Consider Easing the State’s Ban on Smoking - Soooooooo glad we moved out. This is just stupid. Of course revenues are down, you morons...it's a frickin' recession/depression out there! DUH! Here's What A Card Skimmer Looks Like On An ATM - Keep an eye out for these kinds of devices! Art/Craft/Entertainment Thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} kbpenguin for sending me this amusing link:Periodic Table of Knitting A clever YouTube video showing how Disney has reused templates over the years. Some people seem to be offended by this, but I think it's actually quite smart re-usage of old stuff in order to save time and production costs. Unless you've been living under a rock, this one's probably old news, but I'm posting it anyway because I actually cried when I first saw it: Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 - I don't watch these kinds of shows because I loathe their revelation in misery and mockery. And sure enough, this woman - a perfectly lovely woman but not the kind of beauty the media wants us to love - gets mocked when she comes on stage, especially when she gives a little sexy hip-shake that would have been considered hot if she was underweight and younger. But when she sings, everyone who mocked her is rightfully put in their places. That's by far the best version of that song I've ever heard. I actually skip the version on my Broadway Les Miz album because I find the professional singer's voice irritating on some of the notes. I'd gladly buy a copy of Susan Boyle's version and insert it into my Les Miz playlist instead! Better still: I've read that she's been inundated with offers from cosmetic companies to do a makeover and she keeps saying no, as well she should, because there's nothing wrong with how she looks! Go Susan go! Science/Technology/Environment Zoombak Tracks Your Dog, Your Car, Even Your Children - I'm personally a little too antsy about the potential abuses of GPS tracking of individuals to ever want any kind of device on me or my loved ones all the time, but as a geek I'm interested in the technological aspects of this product, not to mention the fictional posibilities (let's just say that more than two years ago I had already planned political issues with this kind of technology about halfway through the Colony books). This is Your Brain on Facebook - interesting article about scientific examinations of brain plasticity related to Internet usage. How Green Is My Bottle? - Interesting article that lays out just how eco-friendly or not a reusable bottle can be. I do find it funny how people will jump on any eco-bandwagon these days without considering overall impact, and those type of people will frequently keep consuming anything with an eco-label well beyond their needs, thereby actually making things worse. As in, if you're buying a new metal water cup every few months to suit style changes or just because you love to shop, you are NOT saving the planet! Why Isn’t the Brain Green? - Examining why people rank environmental concerns so low on their lists of important issues. A reeeeeeeeeally long article. I haven't finished it myself yet, mostly because it's been hard to focus on it while on cold/flu medication. Study: Spammers scourge to inbox and environment - Guess that eliminates the argument that spam is eco-friendly because it doesn't waste paper. The Promise of a Better Light Bulb? - I'd consider buying one, if I could see it on in person to check it out. Astronomers Find Planet Closer to Size of Earth - Nifty. G.E.’s Breakthrough Can Put 100 DVDs on a Disc - So this means I can keep taking huge gobs of pics/vids of Peo, right? Parenting/Home Life/Food Scratch That: How cost-effective is it to make homemade pantry staples? - A really cool article about one woman's explorations of whether it's better to make or buy some foods. I love this. I don't generally read blogs out of lack of time but I'm bookmarking her blog in case she does any more experiments. Another Awkward Sex Talk: Respect and Violence - interesting article about raising kids in terms of gender-manners. Dark Sugar: The decline and fall of high-fructose corn syrup. - One can only hope. And it's not the same for anyone with diabetes or PCOS or any other health problem that super-stores fructose. Misc/Fun/Weird This Discount Store Enjoys Messing With Its Customers' Minds - warning: disengage mental logic circuits before looking. Bacon: the Other White Heat: You know bacon is delicious, but did you know it contains enough energy to melt metal? - Awesome. :D Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do) - This is a good list. I'm guilty of a couple of them but I know I'm very good about most of the rest (I'm talking about my professional writing...no fair critiquing my informal blog posts, dig?). More writer-wannabes should read this. Most of the painful amateur prose I've had the misfortune to read suffered from all of these problems. | ||||||
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April 18th, 2009
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| With Peo's up and down angstiness, we don't often feel like genius parents. However, there is something we frequently do that can sometimes avoid angst ramping up in the first place, and it takes hardly any time/materials/cost over and above what would be done otherwise: we add faces or other silly designs to things. Here are some recent examples of how taking a few seconds to do something silly can really help with a 2-4 year old child: 1) In any kind of food preparation, especially one where the child might otherwise be a fussy eater, make some or all of the food into a smiley face shape. If the child is old enough and willing to help, bonus points, since kids are more inclined to eat things they help "cook". Some examples:
Notes: - Faces don't have to be perfect; kids can figure it out. Sillier is sometimes better. - Sometimes the kid will eat the face off first. Fine. Let them. Then plop more of the dinner into a new face and they will eat it. Keep up a good mood about it and you can trick them into eating all of their dinner quickly. It's like frickin' magic, I swear. - Do try to avoid mixing foods that will get soggy if your kid hates this (as Peo does), so no crackers with the wet fruit salad. - Making the face say "hi" or "eat me" or "don't eat me" or whatever in a silly voice does wonders as well. - Give in to whatever gory violence your kid does to the face. If they squeal about eating the eyes, squeal back about how gross it is. This ramps up the fun BIG TIME. If you're artistic, you can go beyond faces for other shapes, but there's a caveat: the more detailed you get, the more detailed you'll continually be expected to be, so don't over-commit yourself. I made the mistake of trying to carve an Ernie-head out of a piece of cantaloupe when Peo was 2-ish and she wanted a damned Ernie head on every piece of melon for ages after that. Keep it simple for daily stuff, and if you feel the urge to push your limits, save it for obviously special times. Unless, of course, you're some kind of insane-martyr-super-parent-chef-knifewie 2) Faces don't have to be limited to food. You can pretty-up plain stuff that's cheap instead of buying pre-decorated stuff for more money. Bandaids are our recent discovery for this example. Peo recently cut her big toe and I couldn't find the one and only package of licensed-character bandaids we bought (which we only got because it was the only source of teeeeeeeeeny tiny infant-finger-size bandaids we could find), so I drew a stick figure on a regular bandaid in about five seconds and made a big deal about how special it was. Soon it turned into a big thing where Peo was much happier about her wound simply because of the potential for other exciting drawings on the bandaid. She confuses "plain" with "plane" all the time so Corran has been drawing planes on the plain bandaids, which delights her (actually lately we think she's punning it more than being confused, but same difference). Caveat: ensure the child does not start wasting things to get more new designs. Peo has to be stopped from ripping off perfectly good bandaids to try to get new ones. Or as she phrases it, "It's not special anymore!" No. Not allowed. Don't ever give in or you are HOSED. If they rip off the bandaid, either they don't get another one until the next time you'd put on a fresh one anyway (like when Peo took hers off during dinner and she was going to bed in an hour anyway), or if you need to put another one on, that one stays plain until it'd be time for a fresh one. They will cry. Be strong...the delight will return on the next drawn-on one and they'll be more inclined to treasure it and not waste it. Other things we've put smiley faces on over the years: - Reused food tubs have been turned into Angry and Happy faces for bath-time play (Sharpie on a semi-clear deli tub seems to last for years). - Rocks, with paint, markers, more dirt, whatever...or just draw 'em in the sand/mud...or any nature-based face is good when you're outside - During any art or craft time, show your wee one how to make a smiley face out of stickers, paint (be it brush or finger or full-smacking hand in glorious splashy colour-puddles), googly eyes (don't for one second limit them to eyes alone!), glitter glue, regular white glue (seriously, buy it in bulk and let 'em squirt it and study fluid dynamics and don't fret about the excess), stamps (the rubber kind...DO NOT LET CHILD SEE YOU USING POSTAGE STAMPS UNLESS YOU CAN KEEP THEM OUT OF REACH or unless you reeeeeaaaallly like supporting the post office), crayons/pencils, pre-cut paper/wood/foam shapes, whatever. You'd be amazed at how much delight a little kid gets out of seeing or making faces. This is when I cue dididdlyi to say how much she likes spotting face patterns in things, as do I (I had a whole army of them marked out on my cubicle wall when I was a staff writer for a tech mag), and of course the whole face thing is deeply rooted in our brains and that's no doubt why kids seek them out, etc etc etc. The psychological imperative is interesting but not necessary to know or understand: the point is, put faces on everything for your kids and make a big deal out of it and it can go a long way to mitigating a lot of behavioural issues. It doesn't generally stop a tantrum in full swing, but it can avoid some tantrums in the first place. Or at least, it doesn't seem to hurt. | ||||||
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April 12th, 2009
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| Peep Dioramas: 2009: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co 2008: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co 2007: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/ph Now I totally want to make one for next year. In my copious free time... | ||||||
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April 11th, 2009
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| Now that the knitted Tiny Scarecrow doll is finally done (still working on typing up the pattern, then I'm going to test it), I'm able to start work on an experimental bit of knitting I've had in my head for several months. I came up with a concept that seems to me to have tremendous opportunity for making some lovely things, and so months ago I started looking for patterns using the concept. I figured there had to be many of them, since I could conceive of so many instantly myself. I was surprised to find very, very few patterns, paid or free, that use this concept. I thought perhaps that, since one of the styles involved was new to me, it must be that it doesn't work out right, and therefore nobody is really doing it. Or perhaps it would be unduly complicated, or there'd be some other problem. Well, I'm happy to report that in the last week's worth of experimenting, despite a few minor hurdles in getting things to look right, it's actually just as I envisioned: a really interesting concept that indeed has a lot of potential. It's not like I've invented something new; more like I appear to be taking something obscure and charging ahead with it in ways that I cannot find anyone else doing. Results will be shared eventually, when I'm ready with lots of samples. I'm wondering if this might be something I should put together as another paid pattern set, since it would be relatively unique... | ||||||
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April 9th, 2009
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| Infodump time! Gacked from nightxade: My Little Darth Vader and the other pony toys bizarrely transformed by movie fan - These are AWESOME, and be sure to check out the artist's gallery too.Of 'Greenwash' and Image Management - interesting article about varying levels of truth in eco-marketing. Rocket Fuel Ingredient Found in Powder - as in, infant formula powder. Yum. This is so wrong. A few weeks ago I was listening to a science podcast and they were talking about how anti-evolutionists like to name ten or a dozen scientists who don't believe in evolution, citing that as reason enough to doubt the theory. Well, the science community's response is to be able to list 1000 scientists that do believe in evolution...all of whom are named Steve (or some variant thereof, including feminine and non-Anglo). I laughed out loud when I heard that! See Project Steve for more info. PBX Hell: 50-Plus Hacks and Tips to Get to a Real Person at Any Corporation in 10 Seconds or Less - Some are more potentially useful than others, but a good list if you hate waiting on hold. A FLEET of UFOs in formation has been photographed - on Google. - Hahahaha, it's a tabloid, don't get too excited. It alleges that Google's street view in London shows some UFOs. Well, really, after the Daleks and then the Cybermen and then the Daleks vs Cybermen and all of the other alien-trashing of London that I've seen on that documentary about that time-travelling fellow, I suppose some flying saucers is probably just routine to Londoners now, eh? Here's something potentially useful to other cooks out there: What To Do With Egg Whites Left Over Egg Yolks In each case, what can be done in terms of storage and recipes with the leftover portions of egg after you've used the other bit. I actually find that I avoid recipes that want me to use only part of an egg unless the other part comes in later, but now that I know I can freeze them...hmm... | ||||||
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March 28th, 2009
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| I decided I hadn't been spending enough quality home time with Peo lately. I don't mean that I don't do things with her - I take her out to parks, playdates, music class, the library (for storytime and for our own reading time), etc. all the time. But home time has been so busy or so ill for so long that it just seemed like a long time since she and I did anything calm and quiet together. So since Corran's out of town on a conference, I decided to set this morning aside for us to do some crafts. I brought out a bunch of the craft supplies I've been stockpiling (soon to be organized in the corner of the kitchen, we bought the shelves last weekend but need to clear out the corner and assemble the shelves), most of which were open-ended general supplies, but there was also a foam Easter egg craft kit I picked up on steep discount on my last Oriental Trading order. I asked Peo what she wanted to make. She picked the eggs. I was soon glad the kit was discounted, because it was of mediocre quality. There was DIRT in the bag. Yuck. And it all smelled funny, although that happens a lot with the foam (which is why I usually go for wood/paper/plastic instead). Many of the foam sticker sheets had been mashed together so much that the backings had slipped and there were some tangled messes. And some of them weren't perforated well and were relatively delicate. But I kept a positive attitude and that helped Peo do the same, and we had a good time making eggs together. Peo started naming each egg to be a character or object from the Jack and Jill up the hill story. I made a video of her explaining it, which you might all get to see someday when I catch up on videos and photos, since I'm a year behind. Anyway, we finished that and she asked if we could do another craft. She saw the big box of popsicle sticks and asked to do something with those. So I decided to try to teach her how to make God's eyes (is there a non-religious name for those, btw?). Mistake! Peo isn't anywhere close to having the manual dexterity to wind yarn consistently around a single stick, let alone two together, even with me pre-tying them. She doesn't have the spatial ability to remember to turn the whole thing as she wraps around the sticks. She doesn't have a sense of tension enough to wind the yarn consistently in a way that holds up. I guess I hadn't realized just how complicated this craft is until I saw a 3.5 year old try it. I know I made them in Brownies, but I guess that was more like 5 or 6 years old, wasn't it? I redirected her quickly before she got frustrated. I gave her a pile of feathers, pom poms, sequins/spangles, wood shapes, googly eyes, and popsicle sticks, plus a paper plate and some glue. At first, she had fun gluing the sequin/spangles to the plate, making up a narrative about them as she went. Then I started making random stuff myself. I was being careful not to do anything horribly elaborate or complicated, knowing that Peo might want to replicate what I was doing. At first she was content to do her thing and let me do mine, but then when I had to continually remind her to only glue on the plate, not the table, she got frustrated. She also got glue on her fingers and I'm afraid she's inherited my dislike for sticky/dirty hands. I made a little wacky bunny with the wood shapes, googly eyes, and pom poms and stuck it all on a popsicle stick. She asked to make one. I said sure and started helping her find similar wood shapes, but she yelled at me that she wanted to do it, so I totally backed off. But then she was mad that she couldn't make something exactly like mine, which is the only reason I was going to help her find the shapes in the first place. She announced that she's no good at crafts. I indicated several examples to the contrary, including the very cool "knives" she made out of popsicle sticks and googly eyes. She got relatively happy again and told me about how she was going to use the knives to cut up some of the spangles. I said okay. I decided to do something more basic that I knew she could replicate, if she wanted. I glued a line of pom poms on a popsicle stick and declared it a caterpillar. She wanted to make one too so I made sure she had a pile of supplies. She made one. I put eyes on mine and asked if she wanted eyes on hers. She shouted, "NO THAT WILL BE TOO HARD!" so I just said okay. But of course when mine had eyes, she demanded eyes for hers. This is really when I should have stopped, but she begged to keep going, so I foolishly allowed it. None of the eyes were good enough. While I don't help her make things, I do try to offer lessons/advice (obviously we all have to learn techniques or we can't do anything), so I tried to explain to her how to get the eyes on (and really, I think she knew but was just pissy), but she barked at me some more. So I sat back quietly and started fiddling with other stuff, leaving her to her thing. A short time later she had a full meltdown because there wasn't enough glue in her bottle (there sooooo was). She almost flipped her chair over. I suggested stopping again, and this time she agreed. But it was too late and she was already in pre-tantrum. She demanded to go play outside (which she currently can't do unsupervised because we need locks for the side gates, which she opens and then runs into the front yard and the street without checking for cars) and I said no because it's a bit cold out and because I had to tidy up the craft supplies. She punched the wall. That initiated a time-out. But when I left her in time-out to go clean up the crafts, she got up, went into the living room, grabbed the stack of books on the coffee table and threw them. End result: I had to put her in her room to chill out while I cleaned up the supplies. She eventually calmed down and picked up the books, but I learned some valuable lessons: 1) As much as open-ended crafts are great and something I want to foster in this house, Peo is currently having difficulty with that kind of thing. I think she gets overwhelmed by too much cool stuff, and she isn't long happy to just randomly make things (which she was a year ago). She clearly can keep her emotions in check much better on more specific crafts, and it's not like she is being limited to by-the-book instructions or anything (the Easter eggs she made were varied in style, she made faces on some and patterns on others, etc.). I think for now, I should keep her in the specific stuff and let her creativity flourish that way rather than overstimulating her with too much random stuff at one time. So maybe next time, it'll be gluing sequins/spangles on the plate, or making pom pom caterpillars on sticks, but not all of the supplies out so open-ended. Not for now, anyway. I know that works well for some kids, but Peo can't handle it on an emotional/visceral level. Which means I need to look up more projects, but that's tricky because most of the ones I've found in kiddie craft books from the library conflict with number 2... 2) I need to stop overestimating her dexterity. It's tough, because she's so advanced on intellectual stuff. You'd think someone who can do basic fraction math could wind yarn, but no, I need to remember that she's got 3-year-old hands even if she's got 6-year-old math skills. God's eyes need to wait at least a year or more. Same goes for my assumptions about getting her a spool knitter thing anytime soon, or loom loops, etc. I do not want her getting into a situation where she constantly feels like she can't do stuff and tries to get me to do it for her, nor do I want to turn her off crafts because of giving her stuff outside of her skill range. There's challenge, and then there's too much. 3) Craft time needs to have a more specific end time. We should do one type of thing and then stop and go do something else, so she can have fun and it be ended before she gets tired and frustrated. I don't mean to set a timer and when it goes BING take everything away (I'd go nuts if someone did that to me), but no more multiple types of project in one sitting. This has a downside: every time we do crafts, she never wants it to end. Really, I can't ever win with this. Any end to craft time will come with upset. But I think I need to be better at managing her so that the upset will be minimized by redirection, instead of letting her get wound up to the point that she'll melt down afterwards. That will sometimes mean putting aside my desire to complete something, which is tough for me to do. Peo's not the only one who can go OCD about getting a craft done and just right. She got it from somewhere, didn't she? But I need to work harder to be the adult and put my stuff aside when it's time to end and set a good example for her. Oi, that's hard...and I know some of you reading won't get why, but I also know there are a few hardcore crafters reading who TOTALLY get why this is hard. 4) We need locks for the side gates so I can release her to the wild when she wants without me having to guard her every second. She's still too little and prone to leaping off of heights and uprooting my plants to be completely unsupervised, but I need to be able to set her free, go tidy crafts, and then come out to keep an eye on her without having to worry that she's running into traffic. 5) I actually don't think it's a problem for me to make stuff alongside her, even if my results are more refined (notice I did not say better, because I do not for one second believe that there's anything lesser about anyone's craft of any age...as long as people are being creative, having fun, and building their skills, what they make is awesome even if it doesn't match what someone who has been doing it longer has made). She seems happy to have me making stuff with her and for the most part, watches what I do and learns to do things herself. The only problem comes in when she's already frustrated/tired and I've made something close to her skill set but a bit too far above. She loved her cake show cake as much as mine and I was so happy that she wasn't comparing them in any competitive way. But I think if I made a cake that she could ALMOST make, but not quite, that would frustrate her to be unable to replicate it. So the little bunny was a bad idea because it was using supplies and techniques she could use, but a bit too complicated for her. The caterpillar was better and I think she would have been fine with the eyes if not already frustrated. I need to either make fancy stuff way outside of her skill range - because she's always been cool with that - or make things she can make with just enough challenge to be interesting without frustrating. So there you have it. Parenting lessons learned from crafts today. Now I'm bloody exhausted, which is why she's totally being babysat by Sesame Street Old School videos right now... | ||||||
| comments: 8 comments or Leave a comment |
March 23rd, 2009
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| I finally have posted lots of pictures - including in-the-making shots and lots of descriptions of how I made stuff - of both the Fraggle Rock cake from Peo's birthday last October and the Musical Mice cake from the show in February. Fraggle Rock Cake Musical Mice Cake Enjoy. :) | ||||||
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March 19th, 2009
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| Two of the head honchos of the cake show contacted me on Monday to let me know that I had to get myself into the bake shop quickly to get my copy of the new American Cake Decorating Magazine. So yesterday I did...my cake from the show is featured in a huge pic beside the editor's message. He says that he and Roland Winbeckler (the guy who makes those incredible life-size people cakes, a true master in the art, I even own a few of his books) were captivated by the detail on my cake and spent a long time looking at all the bits and pieces because of that. Meanwhile, the actual winners from the show are pictured halfway through the magazine later with teeny tiny photos that don't even do them justice. So *my* cake is getting more attention than the winners! Which actually makes me feel kinda guilty, but it's also pretty cool. Now if only I could have some non-Peo, non-sick, non-allergenic time to get the actual photos up on my website! And of the Fraggle cake! Aiiiieeeee! | ||||||
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March 16th, 2009
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| Okay, that's an improvement to the day...two of the folks from the cake club and show have contacted me in the last 15 minutes to tell me that there are apparently big pics of my musical mice cake in the latest issue of American Cake Decorating Magazine. I'm still working on posting pics to my website, and of the Fraggle cake too...but I need lunch! | ||||||
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March 11th, 2009
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| So at the cake show, I heard a rumour about next year's theme. It took me several days to be able to sleep properly again, because my brain wanted to plan next year's cake instead of going to sleep. I had to acquiesce and let it do some rough planning of a general idea so I could sleep. Last night at the cake club's meeting, I confirmed the theme, although it's a bit wider than I originally heard, so last night my brain wanted to update the plan. And worse, they let us in on what the 2011 theme will be, and omfg it was after 2 am before I could fall asleep because my brain wanted to plan that year's entry too. And no...not telling my plans...you'll have to stay tuned through the year as I work on it and post occasional teasers. >:D However, I will say this much: I'm planning to try doing a showcase cake on theme, a possible carved cake not on theme, and some experimental stuff for the "special techniques" category that probably also won't be on theme. And I'm gonna need some of that confectioner's glaze stuff that makes things look shiny/wet for the themed stuff. Oh yeah, it's gonna have to look drippy for some of those guys...muahahahahaha... (I'd post what the themes are but I'm not sure if that's allowed to do outside the club or not...it probably is but just in case, I don't wanna get in trouble...) | ||||||
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March 9th, 2009
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| I've decided that I have neither the time, money, nor energy to fight the big yarn company who has an all-too-close version of one of my patterns on their website. Yes, I can almost certainly prove that my pattern predates theirs. The Internet Archive shows my first updated page as being last updated on July 2, 2007 (and the Archive recorded it in October of 2007), but the yarn the company is using the pattern to sell only came out that summer. I don't know exactly when their pattern was posted but I believe - based on Ravelry listings and on having gone through the company's free patterns many times myself - that it is fairly recent, fall of 2008 at the earliest. Yes, both patterns are a sort of natural kind of shape to do with DPNs, but their stitch count is almost identical to mine, which is what makes it suspicious. But the fact is, my pattern is more popular, has been converted to crochet, has a substantial Ravelry following in terms of completed projects and queue listings, and is frankly a better pattern since it has legs and if I do say so myself, a far cuter face. So fuck it. While I could launch an internet campaign against this big yarn company and no doubt get lots of people to write to them to complain, I don't see the point. They've ignored my email and my return-receipt letter (so I know they got it). They don't give a shit about potentially having ripped someone off. That means if I go after them, they may decide to make my life a living hell, and I'm not that much in love with the pattern to want to withstand a corporate assault. However, there are some things that will happen as a result of this: 1) I will NEVER post another free pattern that uses this company's yarn. The one pattern I do have that uses their yarn will be edited when I get a chance to remove that company's name and I will instead recommend competing yarn. 2) I will stop buying all yarns from this company. I'm too frugal to throw out what I already have, but anything made from it will not have patterns shared, and I won't acquire new stuff. I'm effectively boycotting them for the rest of my life, and will urge my close family and friends to do likewise. This includes removing myself from their mailing list, and when I get time, removing any of their patterns I might have in my Ravelry queue. I will also de-list any stash on Ravelry pertaining to this company and when I knit with remaining stock, will refer to it in generic terms. 3) Henceforth if asked about this company or their yarn, I will simply say that I am boycotting them for inappropriate conduct and failure to address customer concerns. Lastly, and pay attention because this one is a big one: 4) I will be less generous about free patterns in general that are likely to be easily stolen. Henceforth I'll only post patterns that, if stolen, are quite easy to recognize as such. That means no more quick little knits, no more easily modifiable bits and pieces that people can adapt for their own needs. I took time out of my busy life to post that stuff on the condition that it be used for non-profit, personal use only. I am not putting in my time for free just to have some etsy seller or big corporation profit from it. That's not fair. From now on, when I'm asked when a pattern for something easily stolen, I'll refer people to this post. eta: I actually removed their links from my patterns right now, and it turned out I had two patterns using their yarn. Generic terms remain instead. | ||||||
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March 5th, 2009
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| This is my first day with Peo in school that I don't need to be working on cake show stuff. So it's time to clean out the browser (so here comes an infodump), run updates, get rid of Norton and install Avast, etc. Maybe I'll even get time to deal with the mountain of unanswered email. Hahahahaha...nnnrgh. Let's begin the infodump! High Fructose Corn Syrup ATTN: HFCS Haters. Get Ready For Sugar-Sweetened "Pepsi Throwback" Snapple To Switch To Real Sugar Instead Of HFCS And another bit of info: some of you may recall that I've posted multiple times about trying different cereals to make rice krispies treats without the HFCS-laden actual Rice Krispies. Well, there's a new version of Rice Krispies called "Jumbo" which are allegedly "multi-grain", but more importantly, do NOT have HFCS! I have already found a box at my local store and acquired it for treat-making to come. Will report on results at the time. Consumer Stuff Best Buy Sells Busted Cam As New, Blames You. Oops! Employee Pix! - Yet another reason we no longer shop at Best Buy, and haven't for years. Going To The Doc? Be Sure You Don't Sign A Gag Order - putting this one under Consumer because it's less about medical and more about not being dumb enough to sign away your rights. Seriously, people, don't ever sign NDAs or gag orders unless you really do agree with them and are 100% sure you're okay with never changing your mind on that. Signing away your right to speak is almost never in your interest. Science Pen Mightier Than Passion - 60-Second Science - I actually haven't listened to this yet, but the blurb was interesting enough for me to go start downloading the entire podcast series for later listening. And while I'm linking that, let me also mention that I made a lot of that cake show cake while listening to old podcasts of Radio Lab. I'm only up to March 2008, but it's been fascinating. It's the kind of show with so much information that after a few of them, I need to take a break because my brain gets too full. I'm sure my fellow nerds will enjoy it. Natural Explanation Found for UFOs - "Mysterious UFO sightings may go hand in hand with a puzzling natural phenomenon known as sprites - flashes high in the atmosphere triggered by thunderstorms." Groovy. FIRST PHOTOS: Weird Fish With Transparent Head - Coooooooooooooooooooooooooool! Snow Flakes and Snow Crystals - some pretty spiffy piccies. Gorgeous stuff. Dry cleaning without solvents - Please note that this is a PRESS RELEASE, not an article, so it is heavily biased. However, I find it very interesting and do hope that the claims they're making are true and if they are, that they have great success in spreading the technology. Although I don't buy dry-clean-only clothes, so it doesn't affect me personally much. Parenting 3 Ways To Cut Baby Costs Without Feeling Like A Terrible Parent - Plus they've missed some obvious ones like breastfeeding if you can, using cloth diapers if you can afford the initial cost, and only buying infant clothes on resale. Police cite breast-feeding driver for endangering - Mmmkay I'm all for breastfeeding, but this is just stoooopid. Sheesh. If your kid needs boob NOW NOW NOW, frickin' pull over, idiot. Crafts/Art/Theatre What happens when you get married and most of your friends are into musical theatre gacked from bnwrenTHE ARTFULL BRAS PROJECT - fancy bras made for fundraising. Definite works of art in there. I guess this might not be considered work safe if you work with prudes. Knitters turn to graffiti artists with 'yarnbombing' - I love it, especially because unlike paint, it's relatively easy to remove if it offends the property owner. With a Knitting Needle Piercing Her Heart, Keeping Cool Saved Ellin Klor’s Life - Twice - Double meep. I've been extra-paranoid about how I carry and store my needles since reading this. Misc Supreme Court Rules For Injured Consumer In Big Pharma Case - this is an update on a story I've linked to before about a musician whose arm was amputated after the wrong application of a drug in a hospital. Short version: she won the case. Man Living in Cave Faces Foreclosure - but what really interested me were the photos of this incredible house they built into the cave. That'd be awesome for energy efficiency since caves take the median temperature of the area. It'd be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. And quiet too. Ooo I want one. :) 25 Years of Growth in Las Vegas as seen from space - from indomitability. Not surprising, since Vegas is one of those places where if you drive by an empty bit of desert one month, it's likely to be a suburb or strip mall the next. We've only been gone for about 9 months but I guarantee you if we went back right now, there'd be stuff built we don't even recognize. It can make the slow-to-update Google satellite maps useless for finding a friend's house. Hell, even the street maps aren't updated fast enough for Vegas. Oh, and that's just a small view of the area, probably showing Vegas proper. Even though our address was listed as being in Las Vegas, we weren't actually in the city, and our house isn't even on those photos. There's so much more sprawl beyond what this shows."My iPhone Is Missing, And Some Guy Is Taking Pics Of Himself With It!" - I'm posting this not really because of the actual story, although that is interesting, but primarily because of this line of advice: "Before losing the phone, his dad set up a rule where any email sent from the phone blind-cc'ed his personal email address, which we think is a pretty brilliant low-tech security solution for tracking down a lost/stolen phone or laptop." Those with portable devices such as these might want to consider such a setup. A Colorado school district does away with grade levels - An interesting approach, especially since this is what I've learned a lot of gifted private schools do. I'm curious to see how it works out long-term. Arbitrary regulations on age and groupings are convenient but almost never great for all the kids involved. The Crisis of Credit Visualized - an interesting little movie that sums up how the credit crisis came to be. Forget the G-string - can ANYONE wear the new C-string? - Meep. | ||||||
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March 1st, 2009
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| *squee and happy dance* Guess what I did? I WON FIRST PLACE IN MY DIVISION/CATEGORY AND BEST OF DIVISION AT THE CAKE SHOW!! OMG! *squuueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee* Friends from the cake club were telling me last night that the judges kept coming back to my cake, and I'd seen people crowding around it taking gobs of photos. It even got a bunch of people's choice stickers (folks had to buy those and then could put them on cards by the cakes to vote), and Peo's did too, which was nice. So when I went to bed last night I was really hoping for a 3rd place in my division/category (which was Intermediate/Novelty Tiered), or maybe even 2nd. So when third and second were announced and not mine, I dared to hope and then went ten shades of red (or in cake parlance, Americolor Super Red) when they called me for first, especially when the whole crowd cheered louder than for any other cake thusfar. I didn't think I had a hope of winning for the whole intermediate division, though, so I was actually paying more attention to Peo than the announcement when it came, so I was freaked out when it was me! Then all day people kept coming to tell me how much they loved it, and I was blushing the whole time from all the praise. I'm exhausted now...happy and proud, but exhausted. I volunteered to help run the kids' activity tables at the show, so I've been on my feet (walking cast and all) for two whole days. Plus I helped do some cleanup after the gala on Saturday night (during which Nicholas Lodge, Bronwen Weber and Jacquy Pfeiffer all made a big show cake together, teaching us techniques as they went, way cool). So I'm sore and really tired. But here are some piccies...more to come in the next few weeks when I find time to do a badly-needed website update. ( Read more... ) Guess I need to start thinking about next year, since the rules say if you win a division, you have to go up to the next skill level after that... | ||||||
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February 28th, 2009
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| cake show is teh awesomest... ...so many kids... ...so much icing everywhere...oh god the SPRINKLES FLYING ON STATIC CHARGED TABLE CLOTHS AIIEEEE... ...exhausted... ...it's only $4 on Sunday, free for kids, you should all come, it is teh awesomest... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz | ||||||
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February 26th, 2009
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| Busy busy, this will probably be my last main check of online stuff for the next few days. The cake show starts Saturday morning, but I'm delivering our cakes and volunteering starting Friday night. And my cake isn't done. Peo's is, but you'll have to wait for piccies of that. And video of her making it. OMG you will die of cuteness. So tomorrow I have to bake my real cake for the tasting competition, plus finish the cake that's actually styrofoam dummies for the decorating competition. I'm utterly exhausted, but it's almost done. I went bug-eyed today making 88 piano keys fit into a few inches. Oh yes, I made them all...it's an accurate piano keyboard. Let's hope I don't kill it when I put in the strings and the propped-up lid thingy tomorrow. Oi. Here's one last teaser pic: ( Read more... ) Boy, will I be glad to get back to knitting after this is all done with! eta Previous sneak peaks can be seen via the cake tag. | ||||||
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Blatherings
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