Flickr Updates for 2013-04-18
Flickr Updates for 2013-04-11
Flickr Updates for 2013-04-04
meeting knitting addendum 2
One more feature of a good pattern for meetings: short rows* or circular knitting. I’m working on a hat right now that’s mostly knit flat, and the rows are fairly long. That means I have to judge at the end of each row whether I think the meeting will continue all the way through the next one. (Or if it’ll change in such a way that I’ll be writing or whatever.) And that can get a bit annoying.
* not “short rows” in the technical knitting term, just small number of stitches per row.
seasons: spring redux
Back in January I wrote about “cold spring” and “warm spring”, because that’s the way I remembered it…now we’re actually getting into spring, and I’m feeling a need to adjust from my earlier comments, partially because spring is so erratic. I’d almost say at this point that there’s a mild wet spring and a bright spring (cold at night, warm in the day) that are entirely intertwined. If it’s overcast/raining, then it’s probably about the same temperature (mid40s – mid50s) day and night. If there’s sun, then it’s cold at night and warm (near 60) by midafternoon. Although we’ve also gotten some of those days when it’s clear early in the evening, clouds over into the morning, and then burns off late. So yes, erratic. (Also: some almost-snow here, actual snow in other parts of the region, a couple of days last week.)
Flickr Updates for 2013-03-23
meeting knitting addendum
Another thing about patterns for knitting in meetings: they shouldn’t look too complicated to other people. So the piece I’m working on now — a pair of fingerless mitts worked in the round — is really simple, but DPNs (double-pointed needles) look freaky complicated. And that distracts other people, even if I’m just fine.
(I finished my last meeting-friendly project; a Fibonacci scarf for C. I need to start something new before next week! I have a hat/bonnet in mind that is mostly a pretty straightforward rib.)
Conversely, the nice thing about taking knitting to a meeting — and being early — is that it makes something of a conversation piece, a good topic for friendly chit-chat.
James Buchanan (The American Presidents, #15)
author: Jean H. Baker
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2008/11/17
date added: 2013/03/05
shelves: history, non-fiction
review:
I picked this up after reading a blog entry that claimed that Bush couldn’t be called the worst president ever as long as there was Buchanan.
And I think the guy had a point, although it may be that only the existence of the slavery problem made that so. (Ie, a problem so huge that it was already tearing the country in two before Buchanan ever got there; except for 9/11, Bush seems to have manufactured all this sh*t himself.)
Because otherwise, the failings of the 2 administrations feel quite similar. In particular, a blind devotion to a particular ideology and to particular advisers. (Neocons = Southerners?)
Sometimes he seems to have acted beyond his own perceived limitations (in re: Kansas — the section on the statehood battle was fascinating), and in other moments chosen not to act and let let things get substantially worse, esp with the situation in South Carolina after the 1860 election.
Apparently the usual judgment is that he dithered, but this author thinks it was more deliberate than that, a choice not to act because his sympathies were essentially traitorous. (Holy moly!) She makes a decent case, I think, highlighting his behavior throughout his life in public service. It’s one of those stories that almost automatically draws out the “what if.” And it’s a sad, sad story, ultimately, both for Buchanan himself and for our country.
The book is also a very quick and lively read! Well worth a couple of afternoons.
James Buchanan (The American Presidents, #15)
author: Jean H. Baker
name: Elaine
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2008/11/17
date added: 2013/03/05
shelves: history, non-fiction
review:
I picked this up after reading a blog entry that claimed that Bush couldn’t be called the worst president ever as long as there was Buchanan.
And I think the guy had a point, although it may be that only the existence of the slavery problem made that so. (Ie, a problem so huge that it was already tearing the country in two before Buchanan ever got there; except for 9/11, Bush seems to have manufactured all this sh*t himself.)
Because otherwise, the failings of the 2 administrations feel quite similar. In particular, a blind devotion to a particular ideology and to particular advisers. (Neocons = Southerners?)
Sometimes he seems to have acted beyond his own perceived limitations (in re: Kansas — the section on the statehood battle was fascinating), and in other moments chosen not to act and let let things get substantially worse, esp with the situation in South Carolina after the 1860 election.
Apparently the usual judgment is that he dithered, but this author thinks it was more deliberate than that, a choice not to act because his sympathies were essentially traitorous. (Holy moly!) She makes a decent case, I think, highlighting his behavior throughout his life in public service. It’s one of those stories that almost automatically draws out the “what if.” And it’s a sad, sad story, ultimately, both for Buchanan himself and for our country.
The book is also a very quick and lively read! Well worth a couple of afternoons.