anne's blog

The ENnie Awards ballot closes today. If you haven't voted yet, Vote Now!

I'm a little excited about discovering Epic Words and Obsidian Portal as some of our games are getting very multi-media in nature. Plus, I've become the de facto chronicler of our games (someone buy me an EeeePC!), so I've got journal entries and roleplay votes, loot records... that's a lot of data to be sharing by Wave or email.

Randy's already checking out some of the cool products I've discovered just by voting!

For an actual product, I really liked Battlegraph Dry Erase Boards. I like the grooves in the boards, facilitating straight lines. I like the modular nature of the boards. I dislike the price -- $24 (plus shipping) for 4 boards is a little steep... I'll be watching to see if the market price comes down a little. Maybe when it drops down to $20 / 4 boards, we'll check them out.

Lady Blackbird looks kinda fun. I've only ever played in "high fantasy" settings -- well, Rowan and Randy's new co-DM'd game started as Sci-fi and is bleeding towards high fantasy, but we've only used the fantasy mechanics. So, I'd love to check out Lady Blackbird from a mechanics perspective.

Since we're moving to Pathfinder Rules, I really like d20 Pathfinder SRD (PFSRD). Should be a good resource.

I've also signed up on Pen and Paper Games, despite my desire to bring more tech into how I save my game information. There's still a very strong pencil-and-paper element to the games for me. Especially with my efforts to publish my own set of character sheets for 3.5e and Pathfinder. (One day, I'll finally name them and get that whole ball rolling!)

Totally unrelated to the ENnies, but still gaming related, if anyone out there wants to gift me with something truly impressive, I'll take one of these Sultan Gaming table please. *grin* Doesn't that look cool? Randy disagrees, since it's not everything he wants it to be, for that price. I think he's got more geek-based ideas involving a screen projector underneath with an integrated PC to serve maps and the like. *shakes head* He hasn't managed to complete several other less elaborate geek-based plans, so I'd be glad to "settle" for the Sultan.

If you're a gamer, please feel free to point me to other cool products I may have missed -- just 'cause they didn't make this year's ENnies doesn't mean they aren't cool. I mean, I <3 Skeleton Key Games tile PDFs... and they aren't in this year's nominations.

I love to knit. If you read here, you probably figured that out already. But I also love jigsaw puzzles. And... in my humble opinion, there is no finer manufacturer of them than Springbok. I was browsing their site and I thought I'd share some of my favorites -- many of which are knitting-themed!

I've noted that Wists is down -- I don't know why or for how long. If it's permanent, I'll remove the footer from the blog. *sigh*

Fancy that. I'm going to write a post, on a knitting blog, about actual knitting. No way!

I finished the shawl I'm planning on wearing at Marcey's wedding -- in just 62 days! Wanna see it?

	This is the yarn: Yarntopia Treasures 10/2 Tencel in "Moccasin" colorway.
	Here it is, wound into a center-pull ball. I like to use a coin (when I remember) to give a sense of "scale" to the weight of the yarn. This one is "laceweight".
	This is the general pattern of the shawl. It called for the borders to be beaded, as well, but that would have called for another $15 worth of beads -- and made it much heavier. I'm glad I only beaded the squares.
	A close-up of the beads. These are clear Czech glass 6/0 copper-lined seed beads, purchases from Beadaholique.
	This isn't the finished product -- that's much longer -- but from this, you get the idea.

Overall, the pattern wasn't difficult, just tedious. I didn't find it to be an easily memorizable pattern (and I'll memorize 12-row repeats of lace edging!). The repetition was boring though. I'm used to doing large lace charts that, once you've finished them, you move on to another large chart and so on. This one however, you do the chart again and again. And again. Ad nauseum. I stopped at about half way on the 14th repeat, so 13.5 repeats. Any more and it would have been just too huge.

I've got another teddy bear on the needles, but no pictures up until the recipient has it as she reads here. *grin* I've also got a semi-scary project on the needles. I'm trying to make lace stockings. Eek. Stay tuned to see how that goes.

...that made me stop and write a post.

The irony is that just the other day I commented, "I should write a blog post soon, so Gabriel's face isn't the first thing I always see." (It makes me cry when I see him...) I don't know that seeing this is much better.

In the face of large corporations' greed, governments' minimal ability to discipline the very corporations they created, and the vast, mind-numbing hugeness of this ecological disaster, I bow my head and wonder what one person can do. I've watched several videos available online, revealing the plight of the animals in the heart of the mess created by the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Please, do not get me wrong; I'm saddened for the families who lost loved ones. But I recognize the choice all humans make in their chosen profession: I will accept the dangers and work on this job.

Who asked the wildlife? I sometimes wonder if mankind has become so embroiled in the hubris of its own accomplishment that we have forgotten we are the stewards of this tiny blue marble. Look around people -- you cry every time NASA is given any money at all, so clean up after yourselves! This is the only damn marble you've got!

BP may be the most visible culprit -- and they certainly have their people out there making it look like they are trying really hard -- but why aren't we seeing or hearing about Halliburton and Transocean making any efforts? Is the media simply focusing on BP's lame efforts? The closest I've come to seeing an equal share of the blame being apportioned to Transocean and Halliburton is the CBS 60 Minutes interview, conducted by Scott Pelley.

If the Kemp's Ridley turtles (see video with Captain Mike Ellis below) become exinct due to this fiasco, how does one go about sueing a company for the willful extinction of an already endangered species? What is the US government going to do -- shut them down in the US? How can they, when we are sucking so much oil every day? Cutting supply like that will simply jack the prices we see at the pump -- punishing each and every one of us (perhaps as we should be?) for the disaster created by Transocean, Halliburton and BP.

I won't pretend the United States is solely to blame in the creation of these mega-corporations -- other countries have chosen to recognize them and even snuggle up to them for their own reasons. So, when I say "government" throughout this post, I'm not just referring to the United States government.

Keep in mind -- if it hasn't already been hammered in by other sources -- that this "spill" is an ongoing problem. It's not "just" the oil in a single tanker -- or even a fleet of tankers. This is pouring out into the ocean from the very source of all oils and it will not stop until one of two things happens: someone (!) fixes it or the oil source runs out.

Since "cutting costs" are at the heart of BP's actions (see the fisher's wife's speech linked below), we can bet they aren't looking to cap the source and require a new well to be drilled. I wonder if there's solutions BP has passed up because it would cost them more?

I've spent a lot of time gathering all this together. During the process, I came to a realization. Let me lay it out, one piece at a time.

1. It's tornado season for the Great Plains

2. It's hurricane season for the Gulf Coast and East Coast.

3. It's forest fire season for the southwest.

(I've not mentioned earthquakes because they have no season.)

What is going to happen to the average American who lives in any of the areas besieged by the disasters their area is prone to? When Hurricane Katrina happened, the nation turned and focused on New Orleans (and to a lesser extent, the other areas ravaged by the hurricane). When forest fires flare up, fire fighters come from all the areas that have personnel trained in fighting this type of fire. What's going to happen when all of these things hit the nation at the same time?

We're not ready. We're not prepared, each of us individually, or our States/Counties/local governments, to handle the kind of problems we'll be facing. Instead, we'll look to the Federal government to dig us out of yet another problem -- a problem there's no money to solve, a problem there's no common interest to fix, and a problem that's too distant for most of those suits to really care about fixing. When (ha!) there's a little more free money in my family's purse, I hope to donate to a wildlife clean-up crew -- hopefully a turtle rescue, if I can. But that seems so small in the face of all of this. And it doesn't address the problems brewing under the surface.

So, I will borrow from Queen Amidala:

She says, "It is clear to me now that the Republic no longer functions. I pray that you will bring humanity and compassion back to the Senate."

How much more will Americans endure -- or rather, how much longer will our bread (fast food joints with their 99 cent menus) and circuses (cable tv, professional sports) last/work -- before we snap? As an infrequent partaker of the "bread" and a non-subscriber of the circuses (but I will admit to burying my head in video games, so maybe I should have included that one?), I am amazed the nation hasn't snapped yet. It struggles under its own weight. Americans on the West Coast are obviously out of touch with Americans on the East Coast -- and Americans from less distant cities already are challenged to understand the variations of each other's English. What does it matter to a Montanan or an Idahoan (?) if New Orleans is underwater? What does it matter to a New Yorker that Arizona or California is burning?

Sometimes, I'm tempted to sit down with a map of the United States (just a B&W outlines map) and draw boundaries as I think things will break apart. I wonder if there's an online map thingamajig that'll let us share our predictions with each other. If not, why not just write a comment and tell me what you think the boundaries will be, when our Republic falls.

Hey! Look at that. We're packing. Again. headpalm

Yeah, we decided to pass on purchasing the delete...delete...delete house we're renting. We've begun a full-out search for a house to purchase, but the one we are planning on making an offer on is a short-sale. In the local market at least, that means 4-6 months to see if our offer is accepted and get to closing. sigh

So, we're moving to an apartment for the time being. That's cool. Two pools -- one heated in the winter -- no landscape hassles OR pool maintenance, less rent (!)... these are all good things. Right?

Then there's the other side of the coin. We're moving from about 2400 square feet to a "whopping" 1133 square feet. Oh dear gods, how are we going to manage that? I (we, really) have a plan.

First, we secured a climate-controlled storage unit yesterday. 10x15x10. The washer, dryer and fridge are going in there -- that's not even a question! All of Randy's tools will likely go in there as well. At least 5 of the tall Billy Bookcases (4 have glass doors) are going in there. We're putting most (if not all) of our remaining hardback and non-fiction books in storage. The extra dining table is going into storage. My (beautiful) 120 gallon aquarium and stand and Nick's 45 gallon acrylic aquarium and wood stand are both going to storage. I think Rowan has a 15 gallon set-up for a reptile that he's going to store as well. When we're farther along in the packing, I'm going to have Randy disassemble my desk and come up with a smaller configuration for both of our desks for the new place. Rowan is planning on putting his desk in his room, which will help a lot.

The plan is still "in progress" -- so many things haven't been considered yet. But the one thing I've made sure of is that ALL my yarn, and Simon (my spinning wheel) will be going to the apartment. I think my 3 sewing machines will be going to storage -- since it's climate controlled, that makes that decision easy.

I plan to go through my fiction hardbacks today to look for any that can either (a) go to Bookman's for trade-in credit or (b) that I want to keep out so I can read them finally. Then I'll look through the metric tonne of mass market paperbacks for books which we don't want to trade in, but could possibly go to storage. The plan here is to keep one of the Billy bookcases (one without doors) out and put all the books on them. I may try to change that and have us install the shelves over the desks or something like that, since the square footage is going to be tight.

In the midst of this packing madness, I'm still working on the Lattice Lace shawl I want to wear at Marcey's wedding in August.

I'm still hoping to create a pair of stockings to wear with the gown -- but that's moving more and more into the realm of "wish", instead of "reality". If I had a pattern that worked with laceweight yarn for a sock (!), giving me good stitch counts to work from, I'd feel more confident that I could pull it off. As it is, I'll cast these on after the next project I have planned.

And that project... is another Baby Bobbi Bear for someone special. This one is going to be very unique as I'm planning a "patchwork" kind of bear. She reads here, so I don't want to ruin all my surprises. I promise to reveal the final product, once this bear's new owner has it.

So, can I pack this place in 3 weeks and still finish the Lattice Lace Shawl before July 1st? Can I fit all of us and an abbreviated list of our belongings into 1133 square feet? Can I abbreviate my belongings?

Stay tuned to this same knit channel, this same knit time, to find out!