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Mar. 28th, 2005 09:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynBeen a while since I did a proper personal entry here. Urf.
I'm cutting by paragraph to spare your friends pages.
I spent a lot of time this Easter weekend behind the wheel. My grandmother lives with my aunt and uncle on Long Island, and on Friday I was going to take her to my parents' house for Good Friday services. Grandma managed to develop a migraine before this could happen, so I thought I was going to get to stay home, but then my aunt wanted to go out that night. Grandma's not in a position where she can be left by herself all night, so Mom asked me if I could possibly go out and stay with her overnight and bring her to my parents' house on Saturday. This resulted in a fairly long car ride; Jersey City's closer to Long Island than my parents' house is, but a, there's always traffic jams somewhere along the Belt Parkway or the BQE, and b, getting to either requires crossing the island of Manhattan. I don't deal well with traffic if I haven't got a jar of bubbles in my car to entertain myself and boggle the people outside. Particularly not if the trip along Canal Street to the Manhattan Bridge involves seeing one of those damn stretch Humvees blocking an entire intersection box by itself.
On the other hand, being stuck in traffic in lower Manhattan, or on a highway arcing around and through the borough of Brooklyn, becomes a lot more bearable if you close your eyes and pretend really hard that you're driving a late 1950's model Cadillac hearse instead of a battered old Saturn. So that's something. I did briefly have an idea for a possible cross-over between Hellblazer and Ghostbusters, since people have asked me about that before, but frankly I think the styles of humour are too widely divergent to work them both effectively. Harry Potter can be bred to Hellblazer through sheer incongruity and the fact that one of the major characters of the books is just the sort of person John loathes- a racist genocidal maniac with overinflated ideas about his own importance- but Ghostbusters? Not so much. I mean, really, they've faced apocalypses and evil gods and demons and stuff, but ultimately Ghostbusters is more about the New York attitude than anything. Maybe it's tricked out in science and spirits, but like Dr. Venkman said, 'sometimes shit happens, and who you gonna call?'. Very New York. Not very compatible with John Constantine.
(The crossover point involved the old mental hospital at Willowbrook- the one Geraldo Rivera exposed, back when he was a legitimate reporter. A place like that has to have horrible things about it in a world with the supernatural. Maybe not ghosts, but certainly spirits attracted to the place because of the inhabitants and the local conditions.)
Unrelated to the above: I had a religious experience of sorts this Sunday. I say 'of sorts' because it's not the ecstatic or revelatory sort of experience that people talk about. This was more on the order of 'OMG this church that I'm attending right now is to my old church what Canada is to the United States'. It's very, very similar in its services and (apparently) in its doctrinal aspects, but has enough differences at all kinds of levels that I think it's a clear, different, viable alternative to Catholicism. (For those of y'all just tuning in now, Canada is so not the fifty-first state. Call it an alternate-history version of the US if you have to, but they are different.) It's part of a much larger organization which probably has quite a lot of member churches that don't suit me, but that maps out too- I mean, I doubt I'd fit in with most of the Commonwealth nations, or even with the people of Alberta, really. It's more socially aware of things that are important to me and less histrionic about issues that aren't important to me, and it has more of the same heroes that I do. I'm going to ask the pastor (female, another big plus) about getting hold of their actual doctrines so I can get a clearer picture of what they officially believe… not that I don't love the church I grew up in, but these days I don't think it's necessarily where I belong. At least when it comes to politics, I stand a snowball's chance in hell of changing things. To accomplish that within the Catholic church I'd have to devote my entire life to making things happen, and I've got a life outside religion, dammit.
More from Theatre of the Unrelated: I've also been asked to knit a baby onesie for a kid not related to me. The request came from a woman at my mother's church who saw the Aran-style onesie I did up for my nephew; she's offered to pay. My mom says she'll do the paying herself and give the onesie as a gift. This should be interesting; I did my nephew's from a basic pattern in Debbie Bliss, but there was nothing Aran at all in the Bliss pattern. That was stockinette and ribbing, nothing else. I had to improvise the background stitching and the cabling. It's really bloody hard to find Aran patterns for full baby garments- the occasional bunting, yeah, but nothing with legs on. Still, I'm glad that the pattern was well liked. I shall have to adjust the sleeves, though. When I followed the pattern in Bliss a little too closely, I wound up with sleeves that had to be gathered in at intervals, as they were bigger than the armholes. I think I know where I have to stop increasing and diverge from the pattern. We'll see.
A personal entry wouldn't be complete without some kind of admission on my part, and this week's admission is that I am occasionally quite stupid. I gave away someone's name when I'd been asked not to, and my only defense is that I forgot they had asked me not to. Please, if y'all want me to stay quiet about something, refresh my memory every so often. Right now my brain has two crossovers in progress in it, four or five RPGs, about eighteen distinct characters if not more, and no fewer than four overlapping and occasionally antagonistic clusters of friends. It also has VPN configuration problems, family issues, anger at politics, chronic sleep deprivation, living-on-my-own-for-the-first-time issues, and frustration with powerlessness in general. It also has the sheer joy of independence, plans for all kinds of things, and the desperate urge to accomplish something positive and good. When you ask me to keep a secret I mean with all my might to do so, but sometimes I slip up, and I'm sorry for that. Don't let me forget. I don't want to hurt you, and I already did that to one friend, and I regret that like I regret my first college boyfriend. (Hint: I destroyed all the evidence I could find of that relationship, so that would be 'a lot'.)
Also: not all of my friends are going to like each other. I am not going to fall to Geek Social Fallacy #4. Friendship isn't transitive; I don't expect y'all to like each other, or even necessarily understand why I like each of you. Just understand that I like you, and I hope you like me. And please don't think less of me for liking other people you don't like. It's happened before, and it's happening now, so let's just assume that it will continue to happen and that it doesn't mean either of us is bad or that I like you any less.
That having been said, I am now going to go get some coffee and brush my teeth, since I rolled out of bed and was on my way to work within fifteen minutes this morning. phbleah.
I'm cutting by paragraph to spare your friends pages.
I spent a lot of time this Easter weekend behind the wheel. My grandmother lives with my aunt and uncle on Long Island, and on Friday I was going to take her to my parents' house for Good Friday services. Grandma managed to develop a migraine before this could happen, so I thought I was going to get to stay home, but then my aunt wanted to go out that night. Grandma's not in a position where she can be left by herself all night, so Mom asked me if I could possibly go out and stay with her overnight and bring her to my parents' house on Saturday. This resulted in a fairly long car ride; Jersey City's closer to Long Island than my parents' house is, but a, there's always traffic jams somewhere along the Belt Parkway or the BQE, and b, getting to either requires crossing the island of Manhattan. I don't deal well with traffic if I haven't got a jar of bubbles in my car to entertain myself and boggle the people outside. Particularly not if the trip along Canal Street to the Manhattan Bridge involves seeing one of those damn stretch Humvees blocking an entire intersection box by itself.
On the other hand, being stuck in traffic in lower Manhattan, or on a highway arcing around and through the borough of Brooklyn, becomes a lot more bearable if you close your eyes and pretend really hard that you're driving a late 1950's model Cadillac hearse instead of a battered old Saturn. So that's something. I did briefly have an idea for a possible cross-over between Hellblazer and Ghostbusters, since people have asked me about that before, but frankly I think the styles of humour are too widely divergent to work them both effectively. Harry Potter can be bred to Hellblazer through sheer incongruity and the fact that one of the major characters of the books is just the sort of person John loathes- a racist genocidal maniac with overinflated ideas about his own importance- but Ghostbusters? Not so much. I mean, really, they've faced apocalypses and evil gods and demons and stuff, but ultimately Ghostbusters is more about the New York attitude than anything. Maybe it's tricked out in science and spirits, but like Dr. Venkman said, 'sometimes shit happens, and who you gonna call?'. Very New York. Not very compatible with John Constantine.
(The crossover point involved the old mental hospital at Willowbrook- the one Geraldo Rivera exposed, back when he was a legitimate reporter. A place like that has to have horrible things about it in a world with the supernatural. Maybe not ghosts, but certainly spirits attracted to the place because of the inhabitants and the local conditions.)
Unrelated to the above: I had a religious experience of sorts this Sunday. I say 'of sorts' because it's not the ecstatic or revelatory sort of experience that people talk about. This was more on the order of 'OMG this church that I'm attending right now is to my old church what Canada is to the United States'. It's very, very similar in its services and (apparently) in its doctrinal aspects, but has enough differences at all kinds of levels that I think it's a clear, different, viable alternative to Catholicism. (For those of y'all just tuning in now, Canada is so not the fifty-first state. Call it an alternate-history version of the US if you have to, but they are different.) It's part of a much larger organization which probably has quite a lot of member churches that don't suit me, but that maps out too- I mean, I doubt I'd fit in with most of the Commonwealth nations, or even with the people of Alberta, really. It's more socially aware of things that are important to me and less histrionic about issues that aren't important to me, and it has more of the same heroes that I do. I'm going to ask the pastor (female, another big plus) about getting hold of their actual doctrines so I can get a clearer picture of what they officially believe… not that I don't love the church I grew up in, but these days I don't think it's necessarily where I belong. At least when it comes to politics, I stand a snowball's chance in hell of changing things. To accomplish that within the Catholic church I'd have to devote my entire life to making things happen, and I've got a life outside religion, dammit.
More from Theatre of the Unrelated: I've also been asked to knit a baby onesie for a kid not related to me. The request came from a woman at my mother's church who saw the Aran-style onesie I did up for my nephew; she's offered to pay. My mom says she'll do the paying herself and give the onesie as a gift. This should be interesting; I did my nephew's from a basic pattern in Debbie Bliss, but there was nothing Aran at all in the Bliss pattern. That was stockinette and ribbing, nothing else. I had to improvise the background stitching and the cabling. It's really bloody hard to find Aran patterns for full baby garments- the occasional bunting, yeah, but nothing with legs on. Still, I'm glad that the pattern was well liked. I shall have to adjust the sleeves, though. When I followed the pattern in Bliss a little too closely, I wound up with sleeves that had to be gathered in at intervals, as they were bigger than the armholes. I think I know where I have to stop increasing and diverge from the pattern. We'll see.
A personal entry wouldn't be complete without some kind of admission on my part, and this week's admission is that I am occasionally quite stupid. I gave away someone's name when I'd been asked not to, and my only defense is that I forgot they had asked me not to. Please, if y'all want me to stay quiet about something, refresh my memory every so often. Right now my brain has two crossovers in progress in it, four or five RPGs, about eighteen distinct characters if not more, and no fewer than four overlapping and occasionally antagonistic clusters of friends. It also has VPN configuration problems, family issues, anger at politics, chronic sleep deprivation, living-on-my-own-for-the-first-time issues, and frustration with powerlessness in general. It also has the sheer joy of independence, plans for all kinds of things, and the desperate urge to accomplish something positive and good. When you ask me to keep a secret I mean with all my might to do so, but sometimes I slip up, and I'm sorry for that. Don't let me forget. I don't want to hurt you, and I already did that to one friend, and I regret that like I regret my first college boyfriend. (Hint: I destroyed all the evidence I could find of that relationship, so that would be 'a lot'.)
Also: not all of my friends are going to like each other. I am not going to fall to Geek Social Fallacy #4. Friendship isn't transitive; I don't expect y'all to like each other, or even necessarily understand why I like each of you. Just understand that I like you, and I hope you like me. And please don't think less of me for liking other people you don't like. It's happened before, and it's happening now, so let's just assume that it will continue to happen and that it doesn't mean either of us is bad or that I like you any less.
That having been said, I am now going to go get some coffee and brush my teeth, since I rolled out of bed and was on my way to work within fifteen minutes this morning. phbleah.
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 02:35 pm (UTC)You just made my (dank overcast greige) Toronto day.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 02:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 01:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 02:36 pm (UTC)I suggest you charged at *least* three times the price of the yarn. People who don't knit never seem to appreciate the time it takes to make anything, and underpricing yourself will just lead to a lot of offers to make pieces at below-minimum-wage. Especially as you have to modify the pattern...
no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 03:26 pm (UTC)It sounds lovely. Are there pics?
no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 03:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 04:39 pm (UTC)Yes, I am a yarn snob...
no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 02:45 pm (UTC)Actually, I'm going to have to find me some knitters, now that I've gotten so many designing jobs again...
no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 04:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 04:47 pm (UTC)Having a knitter on call would be really helpful. Deadlines can be really tight, and if I have a successful season, it can be killer. You submit designs figuring on an acceptance rate of about 1 in 6, but a few years back, I had a season with a 1 in 4 acceptance rate and honestly was staying up all night, nights in a row, knitting, trying to finish it all.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 04:58 pm (UTC)Or is this production knitting?
no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 05:28 pm (UTC)I just recently met a girl from Springwater in Costco - she was wearing a fantabulous hat she'd designed, and I stopped her and we talked knitting right there in dairy. She'd be a place to start. I'd been out of designing for a few years because I went back to school, but with graduation this spring, I'm getting back into it again - and having no problem finding work.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 02:42 pm (UTC)and... second comment. Well, really a question. What denomination is the church you're talking about?
no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 02:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 03:07 pm (UTC)As for creepy old mental hospitals--the property where the old Tennessee Central State Hospital stood in Nashville is now the site of a Dell Computers assembly plant--before this plant was built there were extensive ceremonies [including Native American] to exorcise and "pacify" the site's supernatural content--they had their own graveyard there, besides the general creepiness you'd associate with that sort of site, which had been a mental hospital since shortly after the Civil War.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 03:25 pm (UTC)We're getting ready to move, and so I'll be leaving the church I've been in for years. I know what I'd like to find in my new town - something like that, focusing on social responsibility and liberation theology vs what I've heard called 'Bushianity.' Another good reason, btw, that the Canada analogy works.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 04:08 am (UTC)