God Complex

I’m getting mighty pissed off that natural disasters and atrocities are constantly being blamed on The Gays. It seems we’re responsible for last weekend’s hurricane, last week’s earthquake, the butchered boy a month or so back; hell even 9/11. Everything bad, according to the Crazy Christers (and friends), is their god’s way of telling them that he’s pissed off at us; all this drama is his way of saying that DADT should remain, DOMA is A-OK and that New York is the new Sodom (ok…maybe that last one’s not that far of a stretch).

I'm Watching You, Watching Me, Watching You

So blogger has a feature where I can see how many times my blog was visited in a day/week/month or forever. i'm not going to lie; I’m kinda obsessed with it.

Elsewhere in the Blogverse

So, Blogger suggests blogs occasionally. On principle, I never look at them because I get really angry that they’ve never picked me (that i know of). I was so incredibly bored, today, that I was looking at what they consider "noteworthy" (it was either that or whip out my knitting, at my desk).
this one had me snickering for 45 minutes; this is one seriously funny chick.

Proud Mary Part I (or Easy Bake Sweater)

I was lying in bed the other night, feeling incredibly self-satisfied and proud, having just finished sewing up a cable knit MacBook cover I had made for our college bound niece. It was my first real foray into the art of cable knitting on a large scale (having only worked small cables on socks before), and the end result had far exceeded my expectations. Not one to pat myself on the back for long, it occurred to me that “doing a good job”, in this instance, meant that I read the pattern (which someone else had written) and re-created it without fucking it up; in other words: it wasn’t that I did a “great job” knitting, I did a great job following the instructions.

In a situation like this, it seems a little narcissistic to be proud of myself for being able to read. It almost feels like i made a cake using a boxed mix and canned frosting and then congratulated myself because it tasted wonderful. It’s made to taste wonderful; if you’ve followed the directions on the box correctly; it will always taste the same kinda wonderful, every time you make it.

Tic Toc Tic Toc Tic Toc

Okay, I’ll admit it: I live by certain sets of rules. I have rules for just about everything: being a straphanger, grammar, workplace etiquette, winter driving; the list of lists of rules goes on for days. These rules (and many more*) have taken me 35 years to craft and have served me well over that time. There’s one rule, though, that I’ve come to think of as a matter of social convention; one that almost everyone must should abide by: punctuality.

To the Left, to the Right

there are a couple of new features to the blog, this morning:
1. On the left sidebar, i've added a "Greatest Hits" link; posts i've written that i'm particularly proud of, for one reason or another.
2. on the right sidebar, i've added a "Popular Posts" widget; these are the posts most often clicked on to read, in full.

i hope you enjoy reading them as much as i've enjoyed writing them; and, as always, comments are always welcome to let me know what you think.

Pups and Twinks and Bears, Oh My!

When I started blogging again I made an unspoken promise to myself and my reader(s) that I’d refrain from posting silly quizzes and things, like the thirteen year old girl I am (on the inside). I wanted to stick with actual posts, in my own voice, about things that I felt like sharing.

That having been said, here is a really cool survey that pertains to Our Gay Community. I’m fascinated on how truly diverse and varied we are, and how we label ourselves and others; I’m also totally intrigued by the labels I’ve never even heard of, like “Muscle Pup” and “Bull”! The graphs generated by this survey are fab because they provide a visual breakdown of the symbiotic nature of the Community and lord knows I loves me any information made visual.
Enjoy, kids!

Confessions of a Yarn Abuser

The other night, CawfeeMate taught me how to make my very first pom-pom for a hat I had finished. While winding the yarn around the cardboard donuts, he told me to wind it “tightly”. When it came time to snip it off the cardboard, he couldn’t because it had made the cardboard buckle and bend under it. before the second attempt he looked at me and said, “when I say ‘wind it tightly’ I mean ‘old lady/grandma-with-arthritis’ tightly. Not ‘I’m CawfeeGuy and I make yarn cry’ tightly”.
Hello, I’m CawfeeGuy and I’m an abusive knitter. I make yarn cry and snap needles in half.

on DPNS and Needles

I’m on project/pattern overload.

1. “Fake it ‘Til You Make It” (a mock Fair Isle hat): I finished the scarf in less than a week now I’m determined to finish a matching-ish hat within the next few days. I say matching-ish only because the scarf is striped while the hat is geometrically patterned, but they’re made with the same two yarns.

2. “Toe Me Up, Toe Me Down” (My 1st Toe-Up socks): I’ve seen a crap load of awesome patterns on Knitty for socks that are made from the toe up (as opposed to from the top down) and finally broke down and signed up for the Yarn Girl’s “Advanced Sock” class, this weekend, with my mom. It’s a whole new concept for me and I’m incredibly intrigued. She’s also going to teach me how to work the socks on two circs (as opposed to 3 or 4 dpns) and using a “french heel” (whatever that means). The class is going to run for the next few weekends so I’m going to be engrossed in making the socks work.

3. “Thoroughly Modern Moshe” (My 1st Yarmulke): my photographer brother-in-law just asked me to knit one for him when he shoots Bar/Bat mitzvahs and other Jewish events. So, browsing through Ravelry, I found the coolest pattern which looks fun and challenging. plus I’ve got so much fun yarn in my stash that would really look great as a yarmulke!

4. “Baby Blanket Bingo” (Baby Blanket): yup, another friend is preggers and since I love her more than my luggage, she deserves a baby blanket for the kid*. I found a really cool pattern that I’m excited to try and ordered some washable wool yarn from the Yarn Girl in an appropriately neutral color that should really make it pop. It may take me her entire pregnancy, but I’m determined.


There’s also a ton of stuff on my Ravelry queue and in the book my mom gave me for my birthday, that're cool and challenging**; which is exactly what I want. I like that  i've been progressing slowly and steadily and that every "next thing" I knit has been the next step in the my learning process. That’s why I love this hobby: even when I feel like I’ve got something down, there’s always something new to learn, right around the corner.

now if only i had the time to do them all...

* Blankets are the only thing I’ll make for kids ‘cuz they won’t outgrow them; also, it’s really for the parents anyway
** like this bag that MS and I will, hopefully, knit together like we did with our Wallabys

Wishful Thinking

I'm a simple and reasonable guy, i think. I really don't want alot in life. If Aladdin's genie gave me three wishes, I'd probably be at a loss for what to do with the third one. In fact, with my birthday having just passed, I found myself wishing for only two things when it came time to blow out my candles: time and money.