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 Terror4Fun: Zombie Film Reviews

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Zombie Film Review:

Planet Terror

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Year: 2007

Tagline: Humanities Last Hope... Rests on a High Power Machine Gun...

Review: Michael Biehn, Bruce Willis, Naveen Andrews, Jeff Fahey, Freddy Rodriguez, Rose McGowan, Josh Brolin, Tom Savini, Quentin Tarantino any of these namess would be more than enough to carry a low budget horror but this bad boy has them all... It really is a celebrity horror get together and to be a slice of the genre we love is something 'most excellent'... Yes I know that they are technically diseased humans (or are they...) but this is a film squarely sitting within the zombie genre in the way that '28 Days Later' is normally mentioned in any conversation about zombie films about its inclusion or exclusion from the rest of the discussion.

Zombie Quality: ***

Big headed, throbbing, pustule covered, infected sons of bitches... The look of these zombies is hideous and original, wet and disturbing and the constantly bursting spots, and sparying ichor does make some of these painful to look at. In summary, they are not your traditional flesh eaters but full marks for originality.

Zombie Behaviour: ***

Hungry for human flesh and very bloody infectious, one cloud of gas and suddenly everyone seems to be eating each other, diseased or killing someone... Some of the infected talk and shoot, but the zombies main aim aim seems to be to devour, disease and destroy everything.... The high pressure, bursting spots do make for an efficient, if very revolting, delivery system.

Zombie Threat: *****

The whole of the human race is going to be infected unless Abby (Naveen Andrews) can sort something out.... U-N-L-U-C-K-Y... Might well be bed time for bonzo and everyone else for that matter... The future does not look good for us...

Gore Content: *****

Tom Savini's finger and sticky ending are worth at least three stars by themselves, even if this film had no more gore in at all, but add to the mix the ball cutting, the eviserations, the beating, stabbings, blood sprays and huge amount of blood splatter , then this film must be a five out of five for gore, ichor and a whole host of other bodily fluids that spray in every direction whenever anyone gets their gun off.

Overall Quality: ****

This film is awesome, the grainy throwback feel to it does (surprisingly) give it a feel of an earlier, more brutal and much rawer time for horror films, each gunshot must throw around at least a couple of pints of claret across the screen, giving it a Sam Peckinpah feel to the whole affair... This film is definitely worth watching with its modern day setting but 60's horror feel...


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Saturday, December 22, 2012

No Place Like Home

Wow, December has FLOWN by!  It seems like just a week or two ago we were flying home to Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families.  Because of our work schedules, we hadn't been home in 3 months.  I was getting seriously homesick, and luckily, we had the good fortune to be able to travel home during the week of Thanksgiving.  It was so good getting to see our family and friends again! We drove to Indianapolis the night before we left (my first time ever in Indiana!) then caught an early morning flight to Dallas!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Adventures in Amish Country

Well, we are already 5 days into December, and I still have so many fall happenings that I didn't get to share.  Now that I am working 40 hours a week on a constantly changing schedule, updating my posts has fallen to the bottom of my priority list, along with running, working on my play and practicing guitar.  I have, however, been visiting family, getting ready for Christmas, going out with friends and spending time with the hubby.  Not a bad way to spend my time off.

But before I dive into the Christmas season, I want to share some more fun autumn experiences!  One great experience we had was our first trip to Amish country and our first time at a pumpkin patch.  In Arthur, IL about an hour south of where we live, there is a farm in a predominantly Amish community known as The Great Pumpkin Patch.  Robert and I went back in October and we had a wonderful time.

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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Good Morning!!!

You all have not lived until you have scraped a garage floor with a paring knife!!! I have only got a fourth done and my hands are so sore! I have under the work bench done and painted. It is RED!!!!

If you look over at the side where blogs are listed, Kris has a new blog. It is all about recipes, Her stange cat, Tanner , canning, going green and etc. She just set it up and I'm the first to leave a comment!!! She has an anon. button on there so you people without blogs can still leave her a message! Her first recipe on there sounds good. I'll have to try it. If you look around she has lots of recipes on there. Think they are on the right hand side! Even if I do say so my self, She is a really good cook.

Russ just left to see the arthritis doctor and then tonight he goes back to the sleep clinic for a night in the mask!! Fun!

Well, I best get back to my floor! At least we have cable out there and I can watch TV while I work!!!

Granola Mom said...

If you look up at the top, near the title, there's a "recipe" button where you can see all the recipes listed.

I can't remember if I ever gave you the Pinto Bean Relish recipe, but I bet dad would really like it!

Ruth said...

You need to buy a putty knife on one of your trips to Lowe's! I hope you take some downtime once you finish the garage and recharge your batteries before you tackle any more "week-end warrior" projects.
Take care
Love you!


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Tech Wake Vimeo!!!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Riptank Open 2010

Hey everyone sorry for the lack of updates is trying to kill me! But nonetheless I've got a new video fro you!!! The Riptank Open Highlight Video!!!!

Riptank Open 2010 from Landan Luna on Vimeo.

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Friday, November 13, 2009

Don Giovanni rocked me to sleep before the man with the bomb almost killed me

Before the show, I heard the director speak at an audience talk-back

I saw "Don Giovanni" at New York City Opera tonight: three hours of live opera with professional singers and a full orchestra for twelve dollars! That's a value even the broke folk can't pass up.

Did you like the show?
While I appreciated the value, the quality and the chance to walk amongst the monied, I cannot say I was stricken with awe and amazement before, during or after the show. In fact, I got bored as shit. But I sat through it because I knew it was "good" and what the hell did I know about good/bad opera. I think just sitting though my first one was enough. You're welcome.

Some people were dressed up. I saw them at intermission. You know that show Gossip Girl? I saw real gossip girls up close in person. 14 year olds in ball gowns and braces. Nobody was dressed up where I was sitting. It was the peasant section. We wore flip flops, ate bananas and talked on our cell phones.

Speaking of where I sat, the view was beautiful. I had a great view of the stage. I was in the 4th level, which is high as you can go. And because of the acoustics (I guess), the sound was beautiful. Its amazing to me that without mics, you can hear the orchestra and the singers so well way up in the ghetto chairs.

One thing did stink about where I was sitting: I got a damn nose-breather right behind my seat. I didn't have the nerve to ask him to stop breathing. Then when Act Two started and his wife was smacking her gum. She stopped when i asked her to, but I got to hear nostril wind for 2 more hours.

Also this Arabian man left in the middle of Act Two and hurried across the path in front of my row. I heard him drop something plastic from his leather bag. He turned around, looked at it briefly, and hurried out. I knew it was a bomb and planned on how I would be able to survive if I could just stay above the rubble. But then when I thought about how the people in the rows behind me would probably come crashing down on top of me, I gave up and decided I'd just die without a fight.

Again, Again
I'm going back for a second show. Yes I am dead broke, but (a) I will not be in NYC for lone and (b) If I am going to spend money, opera cannot be construed as wasteful spending... can it?

*This section is written in a playful tone. I love Arabian people carrying bombs to operas.
More Mark: Press | Email | FaceBook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Youtube | Website | Flickr

Eric Pinder said...

I LOVE opera and at least the Giovanni and Leporello are hawt to look at... but even I think the piece goes on too long.

If you can get rush tix, you should see From The House of the Dead at the MET. It's not a zombie opera and it's shorter.

Mark Baratelli said...

At the top of Act 2, they come out shirtless. One has pants and the other a jacket. They switch, but not before both spend copious amounts of time swaggering their bodies around unclothed.

Eric Pinder said...

One of the guys (I don't remember which) played the Jeff Goldblum character in the opera of 'The Fly' and when he emerged from the pod after transporting himself, he was completely naked. You can google that - there are some hawt pics.

Mark Baratelli said...

I remember that from reading the bios. Oh opera, trying to attract the youngins with nudity. The director said in the pre-show talk back that when the two lead come out at the top of act two in underwear and shirtless at a dress rehearsal, some high school kids hooted. Well, at the performance I went to, the audience dd the same thing. The moment on stage seemed shocking on purpose and stupid. Put the good stuff when the show gets boring, not at the top of act two.


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Contact & Location

At Thomas Gainsborough School we are committed to working closely and supportively with families and the local community. We believe this approach will enable us to secure the highest levels of student success and create a happy school that encourages lifelong learning. You are welcome to contact us…

Mr Wayne Lloyd

Headteacher’s PA
Mrs K Fuller

Chair of Governors
Mrs Sue Leon (Contact via Headteacher’s PA)

Mr David Chiang

Contact Information
Telephone: 01787 375232
Fax: 01787 377386

If you are contacting us regarding a student absence then please speak to student services before 8:50AM when registration begins.

For other student related matters it is a great help if you know your child’s form tutor, learning mentor or house.

Thomas Gainsborough School
Wells Hall Road
Great Cornard
CO10 0NH

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Suburban Sprawl

This morning, as I was driving to work, I spotted one of the facial hair guys. You know, the guys who seem to want to make some kind of statement with their facial hair? The two bearded guys in ZZTop come to mind. (By the way, there are other members of ZZTop, but for some reason, you always think it’s just those two guys, therefore giving further credence to the facial hair guys’ cause). The guy this morning had a white mustache, waxed so that it would stick out and curl up. I only saw this guy from behind, but I could still tell that he was a facial hair guy.

In case you’re having a hard time understanding that visual, let me make it perfectly clear: The mustache extended out past his face for at least six inches on either side. The mustache was as wide as his body.

I can only imagine that long ago, someone said to him ‘You will grow an eight-inch snowy white mustache, which you will part in the middle of your face and religiously coat with some kind of substance so that it will defy both gravity and logic, or we will shoot your family dead.’ And then they waved a gun around to show that they were not kidding and also maybe his wife cried a little because she really couldn’t decide whether she wanted to be dead or be married to a guy with handlebars on his face. Because I can only imagine that he started growing this atrocity AFTER he got married because there’s no looking at that guy and thinking ‘Hmmm’ I better lock that in and right quick before it grows another inch.’

I don’t know. Maybe the circus is in town.

When Mopie lived here, she often went to a little bagel/coffee shop by her loft and reported with surprise that she had seen not one but TWO transgendered individuals working at that coffee shop. I almost couldn’t believe her, just because that is exactly the kind of diversity in Coldington that would please the hell out of me and man, how did I miss not one but TWO transgender women working at a bagel shop? Granted, I never go to that bagel shop, but you would think that I would have spotted one in the wild, buying yogurt at the grocery store or something. And how does a bagel shop end up with the abnormally high concentration of transgender employees? Mopie’s theory is that Coldington is so sheltered that most people don’t know what they are seeing, as it is out of their realm of comprehension. I agree that the Midwest is a very strange and sheltered place. When Jenfu and I spotted two middle-aged women from Wisconsin at the Fisherman’s Wharf In-N-Out burger last April, she remarked that she didn’t realize that we had lesbians here. We do, but they just blend in. Our middle-aged straight women insist upon dressing like stereotypical lesbians. Or maybe all the stereotypical lesbians insist upon dressing like stereotypical Midwestern middle-aged straight women. It must be difficult to be a lesbian in Wisconsin, because how would you know what to hit?

I’ve been hanging around boys too much. It’s starting to infiltrate my speech patterns.

When I was at the stylist a few weeks ago and noticed a statuesque woman walk in, wearing gigantic Dior glasses. I was impressed, first of all, because no one wears anything designer here, not unless they got it at one of those faux purse parties*. This is the same city where, when I wore a DKNY logo t-shirt, someone asked me if those were my initials. I AM NOT MAKING THAT UP.

And then I wondered, considering her height and incredibly gorgeous blonde hair, if it wasn’t Paris Hilton walking into my salon. She was so tall and tanned and perfectly put together, that’ that’ suddenly Alexis Arquette popped into my head.

Apparently I am guilty of the same blindness that afflicts the rest of this area, because that just never happens around here. I, of course, was giddy. And very sad that my stylist was already blowdrying my hair, because had I just sat down for my highlights, Pseudo-Paris and I might have become fast friends by the end of our appointments. I almost wanted to lean over and say ‘What could you possibly be having done? You’re PERFECT right now.’ And then I would have asked her for make up tips.

I really need a fairy godmother, people. One who will teach me how to catwalk in high heels.

*Those faux purse parties piss me off. My own sister bought a pretty good fake LV (predictable) and didn’t say anything, just handed it to me, but as soon as I touched it, I said ‘Oh, it’s fake’ because my god, it was like digging through a clearance bin at Wal-mart. A coworker had a fake Burberry and actually tried to claim that it was real, but that one was so dismal that I could identify as fake from ten feet away. Some of these are laughable’ who do you people with the fake purses think you’re kidding, anyway? Anyone who has ever seen the real thing close up can spot a fake without even trying. I realize that some people think it’s just the name and while I’ll admit that there are people out there who care only about that, it’s not it. Usually the love of a particular designer comes from the fact that they have an aesthetic that closely matches your own. I’m the first to admit that sometimes my girl Kate Spade is on drugs. And I also wish Target had come out with their version of my Lodis wallet before I sprang for the second one, because I would have much rather paid $14.99 for it.

Counterfeit bags are tacky. You can’t justify the fake with the excuse that the real ones are too much money because that’s not true. If you can afford to spend $50-100 on a faux bag, then the smaller Kate Spade, Kors, Louis Vuitton, Prada and Coach bags are not out of the reach of your budget. If you have higher aims, buy it on sale or on clearance or go through Bag, Borrow and Steal or go to a consignment shop or TJ Maxx or the Nordstrom Rack. Your excuses don’t hold water. And if you don’t think a real designer bag is worth the money, there are purses at Target that are much better than some fake piece of crap that was sewn by a 7-year-old in China. Don’t be tacky. Don’t lie to people. Not only does it make you look like an ass, you also look like you’re so gullible that you don’t even know the difference between the real thing and some pleather piece of crap.

(I now feel the need to qualify that I do have what I call a ‘fake Burberry scarf’ that I bought off a street vendor in London, but I selected it specifically because the pattern isn’t even trying to match Burberry’s classic buff plaid. Its label says some boring name and identifies it as a cashmere/wool blend. It never tried to be anything but what it is. And I call it the ‘fake Burberry scarf’ because I don’t want anyone to think that I’m pretending otherwise. If I really wanted a Burberry scarf, I would buy one.)

With the advent of the new Sbux opening in just three weeks, my local Sbux is training all the newbies, and service has gotten pretty unpredictable recently. Unsurly Girl has already told me that she’ll be managing the new store, and I assume from the gaggle of virgin baristas that are cycling through the shifts, she’ll be taking at least some of the veterans with her. Because we’re like raccoons when a new business opens on the main drag, I doubt I’ll be able to get anywhere near the new Starbucks for the first two months after it opens, even though it is much more convenient to my morning commute. No matter what I do, I’m going to be stuck with some degree of ineptitude with my morning coffee.

Esteban’s truck is in the truck clinic, so this morning, he asked if I wouldn’t mind running through Starbucks with him and then running him back home before I headed to work. As any reader of this page knows, I’ve got a thing about being late, but since it was an hour before I had to be at my desk and he was ready to go, I agreed. In fact, we got to Starbucks before the 7:15-7:45 am rush had started, so I was very happy.

I ordered my iced Venti Vanilla Non Fat No Whip Mocha and Esteban ordered a standard Venti Mocha with no frills or high maintenance requests. There was some fumbling through the intercom and already I knew that we were in for a virgin or two, but I wasn’t prepared for the 100-yard gaze of a barista so green that she didn’t know what the hell was going on. It wasn’t even busy yet, but she was already shell-shocked, relegated to the moderate safety of the register. A BMW ordered immediately after us, which set about too many things happening at once.

We waited patiently at the drive up window and after a few minutes, she wordlessly took my Sbux card. Then she turned and verified ‘You have the grande non-fat latte and the Caffe Americano, right?’ I smiled, cheerfully said ‘Nope!’ and repeated our correct order. She disappeared. Then she came back and said ‘Uh’What did you have’iced’what was it again?’ I repeated my full order again, because experience has told me that if I don’t assert the non fat no whipped part, I’m going to get them, since they’re the default and if I get whipped cream or the whole milk, I won’t be able to breathe for most of the morning (I’m allergic to milk fat). While I’m rattling it off, she started to finish my order for me, inserting the word ‘latte’ instead of mocha.

That always pisses me off. Don’t ask for verification if you’re not going to listen to what I say, especially since you clearly need to listen a little more closely.

Eventually, with some collusion of the other newbies, she handed me my iced venti drink. I took a sip. Iced latte something with whole milk. I put it back on the shelf by the window. She came back and handed me Esteban’s hot drink and I explained that the iced drink was wrong, and repeated my order. Another barista popped up and said that my iced vanilla mocha was still coming, so clearly Shell Shocked gave out the wrong drink.

Then Esteban sipped his and tersely replied ‘Black coffee’, so I add his to the window as well. They handed over another mocha and we waited while they remade mine. Finally, a less-green barista offered a weak ‘Sorry about that’ as she handed over the iced venti.

Esteban sipped his as I pulled away, leaving the BMW to hopefully a fresh Caffe Americano and not the one that Esteban had given back after tasting.

‘Aren’t you going to check it?’ he remarked. ‘No, because if it’s not right, I’ll just make them do it again on my way back after I drop you off.’ It was ok, though, right milk, right stuff in it, so all was well, except that with all of the delays, I barely made it to my desk as the clock was flipping to 8:00 am, so I’m glad that they got it right. It’s not very realistic to get to work late due to a fucked up coffee order.

Slowly but surely, Green Bay is becoming more metropolitan. However, I am starting to suspect that I’m not going to survive the transition.

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Saturday, 11 May 2013

I've been from one extreme to the other recently, a week of chickpeas, lentils and hunger followed by a few days in Lyon where I ate and drank far too much... Which ended in being terribly ill on the way home, I think I picked up some bug from somewhere, or it was my body just telling me to calm down with the 3 course meals and the wine... I fainted in the end! But have recovered to tell the tale... Lyon was beautiful, a lovely picturesque city. We ate in some amazing Bouchons and drank in some lovely cocktail bars. It is a city of offal and wine, my kind of city... We enjoyed black pudding, chicken liver cakes, cheese and praline tarts all day long. It was sunny and generally delightful. I hear summer happened here while we were away, but it's back to a grey cold day out there today.

This is one of my new weekend favourite breakfast brunches, especially on a cold damp morning like this. A bit of heat and spice with your morning eggs, courtesy of Ottolenghi, who's book Jerusalem is still one of my current favourites. It is a Tunisian dish of baked eggs nestled in tomatoes, soft peppers, and garlicky harissa spice. Comfort and spice...

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan, I just have one large one which I scooped the eggs out of to serve, if you have smaller ones it's nice to be able to serve individual portions in the pan.

Add 2 tablespoons of harissa, I used an amazing rose harissa I discovered recently, 2 teaspoons of tomato purée, 2 diced red peppers, 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin and ¾ teaspoon of salt, then cook for about 10 minutes. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes then simmer for another 10 minutes until the peppers are soft and you have a thick sauce.

Then make little dips in the sauce to add your eggs, I used 4 eggs, you can add up to 8 depending on how many you are feeding and how many eggs you like. Swirl the whites of the eggs into the sauce a little bit and simmer for about 8 minutes or until the whites are set and the yolks are still runny.

Serve with a big dollop of yoghurt and some fresh bread. The runny egg yolks in the spicy tomato sauce are delicious, with fresh tangy yoghurt and soft sweet red peppers. A perfect start to a cold Spring day.

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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Get 80% off Stress and Your Body with our The Great Courses coupon

The Great Courses coupon
You can now get 80% off Stress and Your Body thanks to our The Great Courses coupon.

I don't know about you, but I am always trying to find ways to improve my health and well-being. I want my body to run at its functional best.

One thing that can really run a system down is stress. We know it is bad for us, but do we really know exactly how it works against us?

Well, now you can be just as informed as you have always hoped to be with this lecture series. It is taught by Professor Robert Sapolsky who was the winner of a MacArthur grant. He is Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at Stanford University. All this means that he very, very knowledgeable about the field. In particular he does research about the effects of stress in Africa.

This lecture series goes into specific details about how stress effects the human body and what certain kind of stresses can do. For example, he discusses: Stress and Your Heart, Stress and Cancer, and Stress and Aging.

Those are just three topics in a 24 part series. I watched it on DVD and was very happy with the format. Each topic was 30 minutes long, which meant it was easily fit into my hectic day.

What I really liked about this lecture series is that it was easy to understand without skimping on detailed information. I learned more about the pain pathway from Professor Sapolsky than I did from my pain management doctors.

I believe you will find, like I did, that this series is a great one to watch.

To learn more, check out

Friday, February 20, 2015

Get Stress and Your Body for 80% off with our The Great Courses coupon

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I am in love with this new series offered with our The Great Courses coupon called Stress and Your Body. You will get the series for 80% off when you sign up using our deal.

Our bodies are really all we have in life. We want to take care of them in the best way possible. The kinder we are to them, the kinder they are back. Plus, once the system starts to break down, it seems like it is a cascading event. One thing goes, then others follow suit.

This series is a great example of how to take care of your body and why -- delving into one particular aspect of how stress can effect the body.

There are several ways in which you can take this course; I picked DVD. I loved how easy it was on DVD to navigate the various lectures this course had to offer. Each class was 30 minutes and has its own chapter, so it is easy to pick and choose what you want to watch. The 30 minute lectures are also perfectly timed -- just the right amount of knowledge compressed into a time-frame that can be squeezed between various chores that you might have to do.

One of the highlights for me was the lecture on Stress and Pain. It did a wonderful job explaining the way pathways of pain are created in your body. The interesting thing too, is that we always think of stress as a mental aspect. However, stress for your body can be physical: the stress of a burn, the stress of an injury, or the stress of cancer. These create pain pathways, and, for some, can be really hard to break.

Stress is so fascinating. Mental stress really can cause physical pain. The whole dynamic is so important in realizing how our bodies work and how to reduce the stress in our lives.

That's why I think this course is so fantastic. We should all learn how mental and physical stress effect our bodies, and, ultimately, our health.

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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Get 80% off Stress and Your Body with our The Great Courses coupon

Stress is such an integral part of our lives. It seeps in from seemingly every direction; stress from work, stress from the kids, even stress from standing in line at the grocery store. Stress can even come from a good thing, like a child's baseball game, a movie, or a football game.

Some stress isn't just from our social environment. Stress, in it's physical form, can be from disease. Stress that your body goes under from having cancer, arthritis, COPD, or Sickle Cell Anemia. These conditions put an undo amount of stress on our body.

What does this stress do to our body as a whole?

That's what this amazing course, Stress and Your Body, talks about.

Professor Robert Sapolsky who is a professor at Standford University narrates and manages this course.

Professor Robert Sapolsky is an authority on the subject. He works in the field -- he even studies the ongoing effects of stress in baboons in Kenya.

Some of the highlights for me in this course was how stress and chronic pain interact. Professor Sapolsky went into fine detail about the pathways of pain and how acute pain works and how it can become chronic pain. As a chronic pain sufferer, it was very enlightening to see just how my condition set into my body. My only caveat about the 30 minute lecture was if he knew how to fix it! However, that's not his fault, he is here to talk about how stress effects the body, not how to fix it. I'm just always looking!

I also found very interesting the particular lecture on Stress and Your Immune System. This one really fascinated me as I am a nurse and one of the neurosurgeons I worked with had stated he believed glioblastomas could be due to the immune system causing chronic inflammation that then caused tumors, tumors like what you see in glioblastoma.

The research presented in the lecture by Professor Saplosky was amazing. He went into detail about how inflammation can be created by an immune response and how the whole system can go haywire. I thought he spoke about the topic in easy to understand language. The most interesting part of his lecture was about how the inflammatory response needs a recovery time, and the response can bottom out and not return to baseline. He stated this is why steroids helped because it's not so much about getting rid of the inflammation, but returning the body to a baseline.

There are 24 lectures to this series and ever one is loaded with excellent information. Feel free to pick and choose which ones interest you the most. What I can say, is that they are all very interesting.

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Sunday, February 8, 2015

Get Thinking About CyberSecurity for 80% off with our The Great Courses coupon

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Our world today is a scary place to live in. There is so much happening today that simply did not exist 30, or even, 20 years ago.

When I was in college, we still used word processors to write our term papers. There were no cell phones. When you told someone to meet you at the bar, you were there. Texting an excuse wasn't an option.

We still had those printers that made those terrible sounds.

There was no such thing as identity theft from credit cards. My first trip in collage, I had to use an ATM card. I didn't own a credit card.

There was no need to learn about cyber security. There was no cyber.

Now, however, this is all a reality.

During the Super Bowl, there was a creative ad with Katie Couric describing her asking what the internet is. I'm not entirely sure anything has changed from then.

Are you truly aware of what is involved with the internet? Cant you adequately explain it?

Do you know what nations are at cyber war? Do you know how to protect yourself from identity theft?

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Sunday, October 9, 2011

No. 21 Spring 2012.

The number 21 may be one of the most important years for a person (at least in the states), but it was during my 21st year that I made some serious changes in my life. Freshly single from my first love, living in a brand new apartment all to myself, accepted into Haas just a few months into the year and embarking on a whole new chapter of my life. Although some things may have changed a few years later, there is one thing that I'll always keep from that time- the lovely girls that I worked (and played) with. Those fabulous friends, much like the clothes in Alessandro Dell'Acqua's No. 21 (named after his own December birthday) spring collection- full of mix and match textures and lots of sparkle and shine- somehow seem to get along perfectly together. Check out the resort collection from last season and file as gorg.

[Images via:]

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Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Did you ever want very much to say something, but just couldn't bring yourself to say it?

On Purpose?

Now available in the shop on shirts, a knitting tote, a magnet and a button.

A special tip of the pen to David, in honor of his new arrival.

[Addendum: Sheep on a Plane is now on a coffee mug. Thanks for asking!]

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Yet Another Postcard

Postmarked: Findlay, Ohio; August 26

Life on the road is becoming tedious. We lost Victorine somewhere near Dayton. She may still be in the ladies room at Denny's. I don't know. I don't care. Tootsie and I got into a tiff over the uses of metaphor in Aristophanes while we were cruising through Sandusky and he's still pouting. What a baby. Victorine has your address so if she shows up lock the liquor cabinet and for God's sake don't let her sleep on my cushion until you've hosed her down in the parking garage. Love D

Monday, August 28, 2006

Just Eat

A little introductory note: I've noticed in my stats and on Bloglines that there are suddenly a whole lot of new readers. Welcome! I'm pleased as punch that you're here. I just want to warn you that this is not a knitting-only blog. I often veer into other topics that interest me. Chalk it up to the male fear of commitment.

One of my favorite Zen stories is about two novice monks from long ago who were discussing the relative merits of their teachers.

The first said, "My teacher can do amazing things. He can stand on one side of a river with a brush, while an assistant stands on the other side of the river with a sheet of paper. As he moves the brush through the air, writing appears on the paper."

The second said, "Interesting. My teacher can also do amazing things. For example, when he eats, he eats. And when he sleeps, he sleeps."

To which the first monk replied, "Yo' mama."

The first time I read this (and the second, and third, and fourth–it's a Buddhism Greatest Hit) I thought I understood it. When you sit down to eat, pay attention to your food and to eating. Do not distract yourself with thoughts of other meals, of a past you can't change, of a future that doesn't exist. When you lie down to sleep, let go of the day's worries and don't invent new ones for tomorrow. Just sleep.

Sounds rather impossible; but okay, fine. Great. Got it. What's next?

Well, I didn't get it. As popular as stories are in Zen teaching, Zen isn't about words. It's about experiencing things directly, yourself. You can't get that out of books.

Me, I love books. I love books the way that Fafnir, the dragon in Siegfried, was rather fond of treasure. Books have been my greatest, sometimes I think my only, teachers. So when I've been told that reading books on Buddhism isn't going to get me anywhere, I've nodded and said, yes yes. And then I've gone out and bought another book.

Time for an attitude adjustment.

Sunday was a great big helping of Direct Experience. Our center held "zazenkai"–a full day of meditation. This was my first time. Here's the schedule:
  • 7 am-10 am: zazen (seated meditation) and kinhin (walking meditation)
  • 11-noon: teisho (lesson)
  • noon-12:45: lunch
  • 12:45-2 pm: zazen and kinhin
I love zazen, but that's a whole lot of sitting still. By the time teisho was over I was definitely ready for lunch. I imagined kicking back around the big table with the other Zennies and comparing which parts of our bodies had gone numb and might very well fall off.

Instead, I was shown in silence that I was to help myself to the soup, rice, fruit, and crackers in the kitchen and then take a seat in a chair in the living room. And just as in the zendo, the seats were arranged to face the walls.*

There I was, after five hours of not talking, being sent to eat soup and crackers while looking at nothing and speaking to nobody. For just a second I considered slipping out of my robes and into my clothes, and running away into the street shouting at the top of my lungs.

Instead, I sank dutifully into a chair by the fireplace. There's a small bronze Buddha on the mantel. I looked at it and thought, "2,500 years ago you had a bright idea under a tree, so now I'm sitting here in Chicago dressed like Obi-Wan Kenobi having lunch with a wall."

I took a spoonful of soup and my eyes rolled back in my head. The taste was incredible. It didn't make sense, though. This was pretty plain stuff. Broth, vegetables. But it blew my mind. So did the cracker when I bit it.

I kept eating, trying to get a grip on the sensations rocking my head, and then I realized this was possibly the first meal of my entire life in which I was permitted–compelled, really–to just eat. No checking e-mail, or making calls, or dishing friends not present. It was just me and the soup.

The word that sprang to mind was luxury. I've never enjoyed any meal so much, not even dinner on the Minerva II, eating five French courses while watching the sun set over the Aegean. It felt unspeakably indulgent. I stretched out my bare toes and sighed, which in the hushed room sounded like a car alarm.

And what?

I don't know. There's no pat conclusion here. No specific lesson learned. I'm not going to start declining dinner invitations so that I can have tete-à-tetes** with a sheet of plasterboard. I do feel that I've been shown something interesting. I might never have seen it if it weren't for practice.

Reason enough to keep practicing. (Plus I get to wear cool robes. I look pretty darn cute in the robes.)

* In the Soto Zen tradition, which I practice, we meditate with our eyes open, facing the wall. It's an homage to the Zen ancestor Bodhidharma, who is said to have reached enlightenment after meditating for years while facing the wall of a cave in China.

**Where the hell is the circumflex on this keyboard?

Friday, August 25, 2006

Another Postcard

New Hope

Postmark: New Hope, Pennsylvania; August 20

Tootsie apparently has terrible sense of direction. We are supposed to be in Nevada. Am sitting by train tracks writing this and knitting leg warmers while he and boys go antiques shopping. Victorine is making complete nuisance of herself, says American hay inferior to Canadian and is giving her crise de foie. I think it might have something to do with pouring Jack Daniels over her Cheerios in the morning. Do you miss me, cupcake? Love D

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

How to Survive a Lousy Business Presentation

I was cleaning up my office files and ran across a folder of notes from a business conference I attended two weeks after beginning my present job.

I remember writing the sheet posted below. We were about forty minutes into a presentation that was slated to continue another forty. I was certain that I was going to die from boredom. Truly. It seemed inevitable that I would slip, unconscious, beneath the waves of inanity gushing from the speaker, and there expire.

Doodling might have saved me, had I not been seated next to my boss. Scientific evidence suggests that busy hands actually help one's retention rate, but bosses don't care. Bosses always expect one to do the professional thing: keep the eyes forward, nod every so often, and fantasize about sex with a tabloid celebrity.

If you can't do that, and I couldn't, you can pretend to take notes. Doesn't matter what you write, unless your boss has superior eyesight. On this day, the Latin word matella (-ae, f.), which means "chamber pot," popped into my head. Highly appropriate during a presentation that was a pile of crap.

I amused myself by inserting matella into a couple of sentences. Alas, my vocabulary was limited by a curriculum heavy on Caesar.

(Jean and Vivienne, get out your red pens. But be nice. I'm just a grammar school boy.)

Latin Scribbles from a Stupid Business Meeting

If you don't enjoy Latin, letters of resignation in any language are always fun.

Actually, I'm thinking about writing one right now.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Stitches Midwest 2006 Part V: In Which I Stop Dragging This Out Any Further

Let It Be, Already

Did I mention the Beatles fans? I don't think I've mentioned the Beatles fans. We were sharing the host hotel at Rosemont with a multi-day convention of Beatles fans.

They began arriving Friday, dragging beer coolers behind them. The muzak in the hotel lobby gave way to a nonstop loop of Beatles tunes supplemented by the simultaneous outpourings of a dozen amateur guitarists. The fans were a mixed lot, just like the knitters. Most were perfectly nice people. Many displayed a possibly unhealthy attachment to the 1960s. And a few need to get out in the sunshine a lot more.

I like the Beatles well enough, I suppose, but after the first full day of them blasting in my ears I was starting to twitch. Then I made up a little game called "What if the Beatles were knitters?"

Here's what I came up with:
  • "She Loves Ewe (Baaaa, baaaa, baaaa)"
  • "Norwegian Purl"
  • "Can't Buy Me Yarn"
  • "I Wanna Hold Your Handspun"
  • "A Hard Day's Knit"
  • "Sgt Pepper's Local Yarn Store Band"
  • "All My Roving"
  • "Lucy in the Sky with Bobbins"
I felt better.

Gansey Marathon

Sunday was devoted to "Knitting Ganseys" under the tutelage of knitting rock star Beth Brown-Reinsel. I've admired Beth from a distance ever since I picked up her book on Gansey knitting at Halcyon Yarns in Maine.

This is Beth.

Beth Brown-Reinsel

You may well imagine my surprise when she, like Merike Saarnitt, turned out to have read this blog and said some awfully nice things. I blushed to the roots of my hair. Or at least where my hair used to be. (Who else is out there that I don't know about? Lily? You reading this? Speak up, Lily. Don't be so shy.)

Beth's method in her full-day gansey class is to lead the students through the creation of a miniature gansey. It uses all the techniques of the full-sized garment, even unto itty-bitty baby cables. I was on enough of a cloud that I sailed right through the Channel Island cast-on (of course, I'd had a brief encounter with it at Knitting Camp) and sped upward through the body to the point where the patterned stitches begin.

And then I realized I'd 1) completely forgotten the seam stitch on the left side and 2) started adding an extra purl stitch in the patterned area, thereby throwing off the design completely.

It was at this point that I began to mutter to myself like the Condoleeza Rice reading the New York Times. I grit my teeth and ripped back.

Jon, meanwhile, flowed steadily onward.

Jon Knitting

He's such a good knitter. Clickety click went his needles, leaving an adorable little sweater in their wake. No fuss, no muss, no swearing. He reached the neckline in time to take off for lunch. I stayed in my seat and tried to make up for lost time.

I'm pleased to report that in spite of a precipitous drop in blood sugar around 1:30, I did catch up. I even made it to the Market in time to eat a stale, overpriced hot dog in the presence of Sally Melville, who was lunching with Sean. (They're pals, you know. Am I connected, or what?)

Then, back to class for three more hours of knitting. Beth handled the class extremely well, demonstrating processes (including basic gansey design) up front while still taking time to help everyone individually as needed. And she didn't dumb things down, either. Our miniature sweaters had split welts, shoulder straps, all the finicky details.

And I learned, oh boy did I learn, that I am a Loose Knitter. Not that kind of Loose. Well, not only that kind of Loose. Jon and I were working on the same sized needles and with the same yarn, and my sweater was twice the size of his.

Of course, that gauge meant that ultimately I created about 3/4 of a vaguely sweater-shaped conglomeration of lumps in which something like cables may be glimpsed if you strain your eyes.

Mini Gansey at the End of Class

But I've done it now. I've done the cast-on, the welt, the side seams, the arm gussets, the sleeve pick-up, and so forth. My plan is to do this mini-sweater again, on smaller needles, and then plunge into a gansey for myself.

Thank you, Beth. As we used to say back on the farm, it was just like one of the Guermantes party scenes in A la récherche du temps perdu. A total rip-snorter.

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehn, Etcetera

When you've spent three days knitting with a group of guys, and eating food of dubious quality, and watching Marie Osmond hawk chillingly ugly baby dolls on QVC, you can't help but bond.

Here's my buds, in the shirts I cooked up as a welcome to Chicago.

The Guys, Stitches Midwest 2006

Of course, they're gay. So then this happened.

Franklin's Angels

Oy. I'm fahrklempt.

P.S. Cafe Press has picked up "Sheep on Plane" as part of their gallery of Snakes on a Plane paraphernalia. World domination through wool, comrades. Excelsior!

Monday, August 21, 2006

The Sequel?

Plane Cartoon

[Addendum: Your wish is my command. I've added a slightly more colorful version to the shop on shirts and a bag.]

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Stitches Midwest 2006 Part IV: Well, Shut Mah Mouth

Saturday dawned early for Jon, who had a morning class. Sean and I were suffering somewhat from Stitches overload and so took our time getting out to Rosemont after morning of lying about and playing with yarn.

Our afternoon class was "Spinning for Knitting" with Merike Saarniit.

This is Merike Saarniit.

I went into Merike's class with a Bad Attitude that makes me want to smack my own head. The reason? That curious object she's holding in her right hand: a drop spindle. In the registration packet I received for Stitches Midwest, the description of this session had been amended to note that we'd be using spindles in class, and could only use a wheel if we brought our own.

Upon reading that, my inner brat kicked into high gear. You see, among my many neuroses is a gigantic fear of doing something in front of other people if I'm not reasonably certain I can pull it off. This has made me a pain in the neck to many people on more occasions than I care to ponder. Even worse, it has often kept me out of situations in which I might have learned something new and valuable.

I'd gone ten rounds with my spindles, of which I possess two, and been knocked out cold every time. On my wheel, I'd turned out acceptable beginner's yarn. On a spindle, I'd spun exactly 17.5 inches of a nice Merino singles while Ted was there to watch. Everything else: Variations on a Theme of What the Fuck Is That Supposed to Be.

Things improved somewhat, I will admit, with the arrival of a new spindle. I had been working with a spindle of which I am fond because 1) it is lovely to look at and 2) it was a present from one of the best bloggers on the Web, of whom I am even fonder. Ted admired the spindle as well, but suggested that for my purposes another tool might be better for learning.

And did he have a specific tool in mind? He did. And here it is.

This little gem is a 1.6 ounce top-whorl comet by Tracy Eichhelm of Woolly Designs. Ted gave me my spinning lesson on one of Tracy's spindles, and I was encouraged enough to immediately order one. It's made with tender loving care. Look, it's even signed.

Spindle Signature

As well it should be. A tool of superior make is a work of art, after all.

More about Tracy's spindle further along. Now, back to Merike.

When I found out I was going to be called upon to spin on spindle in front of a class, and therefore make a Gigantic Honking Ass out of myself, I wrote a couple things in this blog that sounded exactly like the noises you would expect from a Gigantic Honking Ass. I did something one ought never to do: I judged something before I experienced it.

So when Sean and I arrived at the classroom, I was actually shaking. That may sound bizarre; but I was confronting one of my great fears. And I was immediately set upon by Merike, who ran up to me, said she loves this blog–and gave me a big hug.

Whereupon I blushed beet red with shame and the neon "ASS" sign over my head began to flash.

It burned brighter as class progressed. Merike is so in love with spinning that the warmth pours out of her in great waves and within about two minutes, I realized I was no longer shaking. She was not at Rosemont running through the basics with Beginner's Class #2,752 just to make rent money. She was genuinely joyful to be sharing her spinning know-how.

I wrote the following quote in my class notes and surrounded it with stars:

"The best way to learn about spinning is from other spinners. And with this knowledge comes the responsibility of passing it on."

When she said that, a frisson ran through my entire body. The sheer arrogance of what I'd been feeling appalled me. There I was, a link in a chain of spinners going back to the beginnings of twisted fiber. To learn to spin from a good teacher is a privilege. And to presume that I could, or should, know everything perfectly before even showing up was not only absurd, but an affront to the subtleties of the craft.

At a pace that was (for me, anyhow) perfect, Merike took us through the steps of changing Coopworth roving into yarn using our spindles. She was such a good teacher that even the two women who had brought their wheels did not (so far as I saw) even touch them. We spun, and we spun some more. And then we plied.

There was a feeling in the room that I hope I never forget. Most of us, it turned out, were spindle novices and there was a release of warm energy as our spinning found a groove and we began to produce. Round and round the spindles went, copps were built up, and although we were mostly silent you could almost hear a buzz of happiness.

And then Merike told us we were going to ply what we'd spun. She set us up around the room and neatly demonstrated the technique, and before I knew what was happening I'd created the best yarn I have ever spun: an almost perfectly balanced, miniature skein of pretty, even yarn.

Here it is, knitted into a swatch. Until now, I've never liked my yarn well enough to bother knitting it.

Handspun Swatch

It ain't much, but it means a lot to me.

Thank you so much, Merike. What you taught me is already making me a better spinner on the wheel, too. And kids, if you ever get a chance to take a class with her, do it–even if you think you hate spindles.

More About Tracy's Spindles

They spin like a dervish on speed, the prices are insanely reasonable, and Tracy can also provide you with one of these:

Spindle Safe

It's a spindle safe. I was able to carry my spindle around even in the crowded Market without worrying it was going to get bent or broken. In these days of You Can't Take That On a Plane Anymore,* can you think of a better invention?

One Last (And I Mean Last) Word About the Missing Men's Room

I note that two commenters have no sympathy for the removal of the men's room from the Stitches Classroom area. That's okay. I still have sympathy for you, and the fact that all too often you encounter a long wait in public spaces. I hope things will improve for you.

Next, my complaint is not "hating on" XRX. I don't hate XRX. Why would one waste valuable energy hating a fiber publications company?

If one has an issue with a business, one has three options. One can suck it up and keep buying. Or, if the business is doing something truly egregious, like polluting the environment, one can (and should) protest and take action. If the business is merely unsatisfactory or unresponsive, one can withhold one's business. This is what I will do if XRX confirms that they truly would prefer to keep Stitches a women-only event. I hope it will not be so.

As for my not being senstitive to the enormity of the task of putting on a large event, I am part of a staff of 26 who are responsible for roughly 100 events per calendar year ranging in size from theater evenings of 100 to multi-day class reunions of several thousand. We do this in addition to a punishing schedule of producing publications both print and electronic, running educational programs and providing customer service for other areas of the university.

And this is what I know: the needs of all guests are to be taken into consideration. This is why wheelchair access is necessary, and vegetarian options must be part of a meal plan even if one is only expecting three vegetarians and one person in a wheelchair. That a particular paying customer is in some way a minority is no excuse for neglect. The XRX folks could have changed over that restroom and also put up a sign directing the men to their alternate accommodation, but they did not. That very simple act of kindness would have alleviated much of the ill-feeling.

Now let's talk about something more savory, shall we? There's too much good stuff in the world to dwell on urinals.

*No, I haven't heard anything about spindles not being allowed on planes. But you never know what's going to change, do you? Nota bene: Please DO NOT start a discussion of knitting/spinning equipment and airline travel in my comments or I shall be very cross. I mean it.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Pardon the Interruption

No post today, kids. I'm having an attack of Life in General. And I want to do justice to spinning with Merike Saarniit. It was that good. Hope to be back tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Stitches Midwest 2006 Part III: All Dressed Up and No Place to Pee

I Have No Class

On Friday I was signed up for no classes and drifted lazily about, stringless as Pinocchio, enjoying whatever and whoever was in the vicinity.

My few idle moments during last year's Stitches weren't what you would call social. I was terrified to open my mouth. I didn't know anybody, felt like I knew nothing; and this blog was barely six months old. When I wasn't with Jon, I mostly stood in corners and watched. This year, to my delighted surprise, people spoke to me. Lots of people. Nice nice people, most of whom I'd never met.

Indeed, even while we waited in line before the Market Preview on Thursday night, a darling woman thirty feet away waved to me and mouthed, "I love your blog." I just blushed and waved back. I never found you to say thanks in person, darling woman, so thanks.

Thanks to every single one of you. I am still glowing. Being spoken to without having to speak first was a shy person's delight. It took all the pressure off. I've never felt so at ease in a crowd in my life.*

Of course, one does make a few friends in the course of a year. Busy as the Market was, I still bumped into Meg and Jonathan, the Two Sock Knitters; and Chicago's own fab designer Bonne Marie Burns. While I was chatting with Marcy from Arcadia Knitting and her delightful pal Susan (from Colorado), Karen happened by and I got the three of them into a photograph.

I was pretty nervous about having my camera confiscated** by the Mondragoons, so here's my only other photo from that day, of Susan. I found Susan's knitting notebook captivating. She doesn't like white, so before she began using it she painted all the pages with watercolors. Her color charts and sketches are laid on top of them. The book itself is a work of art.

Still Not Buying Yarn

If you read my account of Meg Swansen's Knitting Camp, you know I succumbed to the siren song of Bavarian Twisted Stitch. At the Market, the good ol' Yarn Barn o' Kansas was selling all three volumes of Lisl Fanderl's Bäuerliches Stricken in one cosy set, and I decided it would be prudent to procure them at this time. Bäuerliches Stricken is German for "stitch patterns that will make you rip off your eyebrows in frustration and eat them."

So I'm something of a masochist. So what?

I also bought a little sock yarn. Buying sock yarn doesn't count as buying yarn. Everybody knows that. Stephanie said so in her book.

Pissed Off

Friday was also the day we discovered that XRX had turned the men's bathroom in the classroom area into a second women's bathroom. No signs indicated where men ought to go, nor was the Stitches map in the registration materials any help.

Upon inquiry at the registration desk, we were directed to follow a complicated path to a remote men's room in another part of the building. It was, said the woman at registration, "right over there." And so it was, in much the same way that when you are standing in downtown Chicago, the west suburbs are "right over there."

I try like the dickens to keep my temper, I truly do, but this was unfair and I object. Apparently women complained last year of needing more restroom space, and so it was decided that the men must give up theirs, since there aren't so many of us.

I asked the women at the registration desk: would you mind if you arrived at a male-dominated event and found the women's room had been commandeered, with no convenient, alternative accommodations available? Would that not be considered sexist? They admitted I had a point, but they didn't do anything about it.

XRX already makes Stitches a needlessly gender-biased affair. The lone man who ever shows up in the promotional materials is Mondragon, and he only counts on a technicality. If he wishes to be the only rooster in his henhouse, that's his prerogative. I'll simply withhold my business in future. I paid full price for my admission, and I expect equal treatment.

Meat, Men

Jon, the soul of generosity, provided the highlight of the evening's entertainment for us: a trip to Morton's Steak House. I've only been to Morton's once, for a birthday years ago with Mr. Ex. That visit paled in comparison.

I was so caught up in the gemütlichkeit I even had a drink. My first in more than a year. And I've toughened up. I downed the entire rum and pineapple juice over the course of three hours and didn't
  1. pass out cold,
  2. proposition the waiter,
  3. tell everybody at the table what they should do to be better people, or
  4. throw up.
All of which have resulted from previous attempts at drinkin' with the boys.

Morton's is Chicago at its best. A handsome room, good service, excellent food. We three were in solid agreement about such vital matters as which side dishes to order. I consumed my own weight in creamed spinach while talking about knitting with two handsome men. I was happy. It don't take much.

*Except while talking to the lady who seemed truly, seriously suprised that Dolores was not walking around the Market with me. That was a little freaky. Honey, I'm so glad you like her, and I hate to spoil the illusion even for a moment, but have you ever noticed the dark black line around Dolores in all the pictures? That's India ink.

**Photography was tricky this year. After the Market Preview was over, a sign went up threatening anybody caught with a camera with explusion from the premises. Apparently in spite of the cost of attendance, XRX doesn't feel we're entitled to take snapshots.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Stitches Midwest 2006 Part II: I Show Admirable Restraint

Nobody in our party attended Thursday's Student Mixer or the opening lecture plugging the new XRX lace book. We had a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant and then headed to the Market Preview.

Last year I likened the atmosphere at the Market entrance to a shark feeding frenzy. This time I couldn't stop thinking of Pamplona just before they let the bulls loose. Knitters were queued up four rows deep, hemmed in by stanchions, stamping and huffing, bug-eyed, red-faced.

Then, the bell. Or maybe it was a trumpet call. I don't remember moving my feet. I believe I was simply carried forward on a tide of eager shoppers, and didn't come to rest until I was at the back of the market face-to-face with Toni from The Fold.

I'd only met Toni once before, but she's still one of my favorite people in the entire world of fiber. She was deluged with customers, but took a moment to chat and said to me, "Hey, my shop's just an excuse to have my friends over."

You'd have to hear Toni say it to understand that this isn't fulsome gush, she's quite earnest. And that, my dears, is one reason why The Fold is such a landmark.

I immediately set about not buying things, and was successful for an entire thirty minutes. Then I enountered these women,

and everything went sort of fuzzy and blue.

When I came to I was holding a new wooden swift.

Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Fie, varlet! You said right there in fourteen-point electronic type that you weren't buying anything in the Market!"

Well, yes, I did. But let me clarify. And please get down off my sofa.

By "not buying anything" I meant to say that I was not buying any yarn. A swift is not yarn. No. A swift is a sturdy, solid piece of equipment designed to last a lifetime. This swift is an investment. I shall hand it down to my descendants as an heirloom.

Of course, Jon and Sean were not nearly so restrained as I. They shimmied up and down the aisles schmoozing vendors, kvetching about the stock and sucking up bargains like a pair of well-matched Hoovers. Such a display of consumption as you never saw.

As closing time drew nigh, I practically had to conk Jon over the head with my Beautiful Heirloom Swift™ to get him into a taxi and home to sleep before class the next morning. Clearly, some knitters have no self-control.

To be continued.

Stitches Midwest 2006 Part I: We Gather Together

There's no sensation quite like having three good friends all in the air during a terrorism alert.

I woke up on Thursday to the news that the likelihood of espresso or Pantene exploding in mid-flight was causing travel snarls across the country. I wondered whether Jon, Sean, and Lars would make it to Chicago at all, or whether I'd wind up wandering around the Stitches Market not buying anything all by myself.

In spite of all odds, Sean signaled early in the day that he was on his way. Jon followed him not long after. Poor Lars, however, was only heard from late Thursday night as he waited in Indianapolis for his plane to refuel. It seemed there'd been a diversion due to thunderstorms over Midway. When you get right down to it, Al-Quaeda still has nothing on Mother Nature.

We convened at my apartment in Boystown, and embarked on a walking tour of the 'hood. Lunch at Joy Noodle, the traditional "first date" restaurant for gay men of all ages, and then a walk up Halsted Street including a stop at Beatnix, an equal-opportunity emporium where you can buy drag supplies (they have an entire wig and tiara room) and/or leather gear. Guess which Jon preferred.

Jon at Beatnix

The owners of the shop had apparently anticipated his arrival.

Beatnix Sign

Thence to Rosemont Convention Center, via Chicago's sparkling and elegant public transit system. Sean worked his eye-crossing cabled sweater from a chart as we jolted along Irving Park Road on the x80 bus to the Blue Line.

Sean on the bus

Show off.

To be continued.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Hold That Thought

As Stitches Midwest 2006 recedes into memory, I find I'll need more than ten minutes to write about it. I learned a lot of lessons, some of them about knitting.

Shop Sizes

I don't want to wait any longer, though, before addressing a comment left anonymously regarding the sizes (not) available in the shop.

My shop is one of scores that operate as part of the Café Press system. Café Press is a company that consists in the main of three things: online shop tools, a customer service office, and a large warehouse and production facility where orders are fulfilled and shipped.

At the moment, Café Press is my only option for selling things online because I lack the financial backing needed to procure my own stock of products, shipping materials, etc. And even if I had all the above, I don't have the resources to house merchandise and fulfill orders (i.e., see who's ordered what, pack it up, ship it, keep the books, and provide customer service). I'm still just a guy with a demanding day job of 50-60 hours a week living in a small city apartment.

The upside of Café Press is that they make it possible for me to put my stuff out there for those who like it. The downsides are 1) I make almost no money (usually a dollar or two per item); and 2) I can only sell what they choose to stock.

When I first opened the shop I got a query about extended (XL and above) sizes and I wrote to Café Press asking why those sizes were not available for most garments. I also asked whether they might consider making them available. The response I got was, in effect, "because they're not, and no."

It bothers me to no end that XL is the upper limit for much of what's there, and if I were running my own operation this would not be so.

So, yes, Anonymous, I would like "to make a mint," but even more I would like anybody who wants Dolores on a t-shirt to be able to have Dolores on a t-shirt. I happen to be related to many bodacious, ample women and men and count even more of them among my friends. It drives me cuckoo what they have to go through to get decent clothes. When my financing materializes, we'll make it happen. Count on it.

In the meantime, I'm working on buttons. One size fits all. It ain't much, but maybe it will help.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

And Then Came the Invasion

The knitters are coming! The knitters are coming!

In stark contrast to last year's Stitches Midwest, at which Jon and I were two of the four knitting men in attendance, this year we've also got Lars coming in from New York and Sean traveling from Boston. And if our little tribe has thus increased, who knows how many other men will be coming?

Who else is going to be there, male or female? Speak up.

Here's my schedule:

Morning. Jon arrives at my apartment while I'm at work, signs standard non-disclosure statement that will be waiting on dining room table, makes self comfortable.

Evening. Students' Market Preview. Not buying anything. Just going to look.
All day. No classes. Knit and schmooze, knit and schmooze. May visit Market, but won't be buying anything.
Afternoon. "Spinning for Knitting" with Merike Saarniit. [Author's note: Ill-judged diatribe deleted. So sue me. Merike turned out to be one of the most inspiring, masterful teachers I've ever encountered. I need to be more aware of how my own insecurities affect my writing. Lesson learned: experience first, evaluate after. More about Merike in my full report.]

Totally not buying anything at the Market.
All Day. "Knitting Ganseys" with Beth Brown-Reinsel. Jon's in this one, too. I can't wait. If Beth's as good as her book, this should be a treat.

No time to buy anything at the Market.
I'm skipping all the other muck - the fashion show, the dinner, the Big Lecture, etc. I suffered too much last year.

The Big Lecture is on "Victorian Lace Today." The title puzzled me when I first saw it. A discussion of modern usages of lace patterns created between 1837 and 1901? Would that hold enough general interest to draw a large audience?

Then I saw the announcement of the new XRX book, Victorian Lace Today, and the motive became clear. I won't be buying the book. If they didn't catch the honking typographical error on the front cover, I'd hate to think what quality control was like for the interior.

Not to mention that I suspect the XRX idea of "Victorian" must be about as historically accurate and thoroughly researched as a Harlequin Romance novel.

(Want to place bets as to whether when I open my registration materials, Rick Mondragon will have rigged them to explode?)

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

With little effort I can summon compassion for tens, even hundreds of thousands of people I do not know and will likely never meet, who live in far-off countries I've never been to. Even when they practice religions whose tenets confound me. Even when they hate my country and, by extension, myself. Even when they actively seek to destroy me.

Yet when a neighbor lady in ridiculous platform shoes topples over in the elevator and causes a needless commotion from which I cannot extricate myself for twenty minutes which means I miss my first train which means I miss my second train which means I arrive at work late instead of early as I'd intended which means my entire morning is crap with a side of chaos, I think about my neighbor and instead of feeling compassion I imagine bludgeoning her with one of those damned shoes.

I haven't figured out the sound of one hand clapping yet, either.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Joy by the Foot

After spending most of Saturday indoors wrestling with my muse, and having little to show for it other than a busted lamp and a couple of bite marks, I decided to head downtown and pick on Buzz. That's always good for yuks.

Buzz (cute-and-available-to-boys) is presently employed in the men's department of the Marshall Field's at snooty Water Tower Place on Michigan Avenue. Is there, I ask you, a greater joy on earth than a buddy who can tell you when Hugo Boss is going to go on sale? Perhaps a buddy who can tell you when the cashmere yarn is going to go on sale, but we're talking shades of difference.

I arrived near the end of his shift, met his (cute-and-available-to-boys) coworker Charlie, and made him wait on me while I threatened in loud tones of voice to have him fired. Good times. Then we hung out for a bit at a coffee shop in the atrium and dished the world in general. I finished my first sock all the way to the end of the toe, with only the Kitchener left undone.

Knitters: what would you do in this situation, sitting in an uppity bistro surrounded by North Shore housewives and well-heeled bourgeois tourists? Why, you'd do what I did. I took off one boot and tried on the sock.

It speaks to Buzz's remarkable sense of empathy that he, who does not knit, did not even blink. On the contrary, he expressed great joy at my accomplishment and even whipped out his camera phone to record the moment.

I thought the starchy couple at the next table was going to collapse into a heap of Ralph Lauren woven pastel separates. Honestly, some people are too easily mortified. It's not as though I put my foot on their plate of rugelach.

The Kitchener was completed the next day, following the traditional pattern of:
  1. Try it once, feeling confident, and screw it up royally.
  2. Undo it at the rate of three vile oaths per stitch.
  3. Turn off the television, the computer, and the phone; draw the shades; arrange seven reference books on the table; take a deep breath; and get it done right.
  4. Try it on. Dance around. And around and around and around and around.
And here's the sock. I've already cast on for the mate. Merriment is unconfined. Are we sure this is legal?

Sunday, August 06, 2006

A Postcard

Postmark: Coalville, Utah; August 3

Have made friends with group of motorcycle enthusiasts, having marvelous time much fresh air and stimulating conversation while touring the plains. Am buddy riding with Tootsie, ample fellow who shares interest in political science, vegetarian cooking. One of riders, Snake, says he met you once and asks if you recall fondly weekend in Gstaad? Or maybe was Des Moines? Victorine sends you bisoux as do I. All is forgiven about credit card, was able to pay for stone massage by trading your leather vest and armband. Kisses, D

Thursday, August 03, 2006

I'm Feeling the Love

I was completely overwhelmed by your outpouring of support and advice in the wake of my mini-rant (rantette? rantini? rantchen? ranteleh?) about the world shortage of non-variegated male-oriented sock yarns.

Turns out there's not really a shortage in the world, just in the places I've been looking. This had enitrely escaped my notice, which will surprise those who know me not at all. I appreciate all the pointers to the sort of yarn I had in mind, believe you me. Left to my own devices I might have stumbled around for years wearing socks in colorways like "Itty Bitty Baby Ducklings on Parade."

And I also appreciate deeply the offers to send me yarn, but darlings, you mustn't. Please don't ever interpret anything I say in here as a request for freebies. Money is precious. If you have a little extra, enrich your own stashes, or take your Mom out to lunch, or pay your kid's bail. I'm just glad you're here. There's no membership fee.

Meanwhile, the first sock is about 1/4 inch from toe shaping. No, I'm not going to show you a picture. Who wants to see a picture of that? Somebody asked what the yarn is. It's wool. I'm pretty sure it's from Regia. I lost the ball band somewhere between Wisconsin and Chicago. Should you find it, write and tell me.

I'm Franklin Habit. Who the hell are you?

I'm just finally getting around to writing about Monday's most enjoyable "Meet the Bloggers" event at Arcadia Knitting because it has been too hot to download the two photos I took. The heat wave is also the reason I haven't done laundry, or called Grandma, or finished shredding my old credit card statements, or vacuumed the living room, or learned Japanese.

What was I talking about?

The blogger thing at Arcadia. Right. Well, it was the hottest night of the summer–we're talking 111 degrees Farenheit after dark–and still about four dozen people showed up to eat cookies and play with wool. Quod erat demonstrandum, knitters are deranged.

Needless to say, I felt right at home.

Here are some of the deranged who held still for my camera. Please to identify yourselves in the comments, won't you, with links to your blogs? I swear I remember your names but not your blogs, which embarrasses the hell out of me. How the @#%%!* does Yarn Harlot do it?

Arcadia Group

Gail there on the left is just a little too happy about all the yarn. The absent Margene is represented by the sock, center. That's what they told me. The sock is Margene. Margene is a sock. (You see? Deranged. Deranged.)

Just behind Gail is Lynn. Lynn had been deeply moved by the post in which I described carrying a stitch marker in my bosom for several days without knowing. In a display of compassion worthy of Kuan Yin, she gifted me with two two markers rather more elaborate than my little orange rings of plastic. Lookee.

Could she have chosen better? No, she could not. Stitch markers that speak to who I am, to what I love. Stitch markers that reference my fascination with Orientalia and my long-time Anglophilia. Stitch markers way too substantial to ever get lost in this:

No title necessary

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Somebody Else's Knitting

One of my colleagues recently returned from her own stint as an alumni tour host. Around the same time I found out I was going to the Aegean, she got orders for a cruise through Russia. I suggested she keep an eye out for knitted lace, and wouldn't you know, she listened to me.

Katie acquired a palatine (aka knitted lace stole) during a stop at an artisan's colony somewhere near Moscow and was kind enough to bring it to the office so I could fondle it, examine it, and take a few photographs to share with y'all.

The lace is not from Orenberg, but it was definitely worked using the Orenberg construction method as outlined by Galina Khmeleva. I found the cast-on on the bottom edge, and the final border graft near the upper left corner.

Katie's Stole 1

Here's part of the bottom edge - with tassels attached. Hadn't seen that before. The yarn is a loose ply of a variegated silk singles and a very fine rust-red mohair singles.

Katie's Lace 2

The entire center was worked with this stitch pattern, which looks like droopy vine leaves. Not complicated, but very pretty.

Katie's Stole 3

Interestingly, although the top and bottom borders both had the "five-hole teeth" that Galina says are characteristic of all Orenberg borders, the sides of the stole had only four holes per tooth. [Note to non-knitting readers: Yes, that is interesting. Shut up.]

Katie's Stole 4

Russian lace becomes her, does it not? And she got a good price, too: a bargain by American standards, but high enough to be fair to the knitter. It sounds like the knitters (and the other artists) sold directly to the public, with no middleman to grab the profits.

Word from Dolores

It was the work of mere minutes to alert American Express that my card information was on the loose, but by that time there were already unauthorized charges to a luxury car rental company, several roadside restaurants and bars, and finally a "sheep only" nudist resort somewhere on the outskirts of Las Vegas.

The phone rang at about 2 a.m.

"Wazza?" I said.

"Cupcake, there seems to be an issue with this credit card of yours," said Dolores. In the background, I could hear somebody bleating angrily in French.

"Hey, you fluffy old thing," I said. "How's Victorine enjoying Las Vegas?"

"Well not too much, sweetheart, since we are trying to get hot stone massages and your naughty little credit card has suddenly stopped working. Marco and Rufus are not amused. You see our difficulty?"

"Say, did you take my Aeneid with you? I need to look up a reference."

"It's in my bedside stack under a packet of letters from Ann Coulter. Are you listening to me? Your card is no good. I need you to call AmEx and sort it all out before these boys go off the boil."

"That reminds me. Since you're away, do you mind if Jon sleeps on your cushion while he's here next week?"

"Franklin! Pay attention!"

"Gee, the connection's breaking up, Dolores. Are you driving through a canyon?"

"No! I am standing here with two short-tempered masseurs who are waiting for a deposit! Now hang up the damn phone and–"

I can hardly wait for the postcards.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Paging Susie Snowflake

Heat. Everywhere. No escape. It creeps in under the drawn windowshade, laughs at the feeble warning shot from the air conditioner, and runs its sticky tongue down your neck to the base of your spine.

A simple three-block walk to the subway stretches to ten shimmering miles. The exposed subway platform is so hot that sap and tar ooze from the wooden planks. Your shoes fry as you wait for the train, delayed due to overheated and malfunctioning signals somewhere in the Loop. The train arrives, overcrowded. Everybody on in your car stinks.

Sleepy silence reigns until a woman's bare, sweaty shoulder smacks up against the impossibly crisp white shirt of a businessman. The businessman, aghast, calls the woman a pig. The woman shakes her hair and drops of sweat fly across his face, his glasses, his briefcase. He screams. Then the woman reaches out to embrace him in a moist hug. His face takes on the violent contortions of a damned soul in a mediaeval altarpiece.

You trudge the mile from the train to your office. Your brain, liquifying, conjures perverted fantasies in which ice and snow are put to uses not intended by nature.

You are startled from these bright visions by the sounds of yelling. The owner of the bookstore is yelling at a homeless man. A motorist is yelling at a cop. A mother is yelling at her children. The children simply yell.

You arrive at the office and find that painters have been contracted to touch up the walls. Today. Out of the three hundred and sixty five days in which, theoretically, painting could be done, this day has been chosen.

The painters insist on working with the windows open. There are no window screens. You attempt to focus on work as the temperature climbs into the nineties and a plague of nasty, heat-loving swamp insects gathers on your monitor.

You ask if you might work from home and are told no, you may not, as the university does not cease normal operations due to the vagaries of climate. You hear the air conditioner in the boss's office kick into high gear as he hangs up the telephone.

Your coworkers smack wildly at the swarming locusts and flies. The smell of paint hangs in the air like a fog.

You wonder if this is a health and safety violation and decided to consult the OSHA Web site, but are so disoriented from huffing secondhand latex fumes that you cannot remember how to spell OSHA.

A normally mild-mannered, elderly coworker tells the painter she is going to turn on the ceiling fan and he is just going to have to deal with it. He tells her she can't as he needs to work on the ceiling. She calls him a "motherfucker."

You turn back to the Panama Canal article and find yourself staring at the water in the accompanying photograph. The blue, blue water. The blue, cool, clear water. So much water. In your mind, you strip off your clothes and dive into the water and suck it into the red-hot coils of your lungs.

The painter and the coworker are locked in an escalating battle of words that promises to turn physical. You wonder what exactly would happen if a gallon of Navajo white were poured over the CPU of a Mac G5. You find the idea of being dipped into a stream of nice, cool Navajo white alluring.

Somehow, you have moved from your chair onto the floor. It's cooler down here.

The darkness under the desk beckons to you. Cooler still under there. So dark, so cool. If you just bend your legs a little, you can fit completely under the desk. Ah.

You curl up, thumb in mouth. You close your eyes, and wait for November.


WARC-Truncated: length

text:
Past Public Events

April 2017

Consciously Secure Workplace Event

March, 2017

Women in Technology, IAMCP

At NPower speaking with students.

Co-Leading a Self Defense Workshop at the United Nations, CSW Youth Forum

January 2017, Beware of Fake News, NYC-Filipino American Press Club

December, 2016 JCI, NYC ICONS Awards, for International Affairs and Women Security

December, 2016 OWASP Brooklyn

November, 2016

Social Venture Network Conference

Launching Consciously Secure Living

Launching Consciously Secure Living, Stop My Crisis

Princeton 2

JULY 2016

Launching Consciously Secure Living, Move the Crowd

Rha 1

APRIL 2016

ASIS International Conference – April 27th – Pointing to my article in Security Director Magazine

ACEDS Conference – April 18th

Microsoft DigiGirlz Panel – April 8th

MARCH 2016

Commission on the Status of Women, Safety and Security – March  21st

William Patterson Cyber Event – March 18th

FEBRUARY 29th, 2016 – 3rd Annual Power of Collaboration 2016

3rd Annual Power of Collaboration 2016 “Turning Conversations into Action: Accelerating Partnerships Toward Inclusive and Sustainable Economies.” at the United NationsFebruary 29th, 2016. This includes the Signature Panel Conversations with Men™ The Advancement of Women in Peace and Security.

Power of Collaboration Millennial Event, February 24th

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January 2016

Soft Targets? How to Protect Your Business from Hackers and Other Business Concerns. Hosted by Microsoft and NAWBO-NYC. January 19th 6pm-8pm

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October 2015

WAW! Side Event in partnership with the Foreign Ministry of Japan, United Nations, October 30th.

I was proud to moderate this event at the United Nation on October 30th!

151030 Peace Forum-1006-final

 July 2015

HackECPAT Trafficking Hackathon, NYC  – July 18th-19th

 June 2015

June 6th – Alpha Kappa Alpha – Rite of Passage Program – Creating a Consciously Secure Life

April 2015

PurePoint international Happy hour PurePoint International Happy Hour

April 2015

Attachment-1At Tufts University at the Corporate Sustainability conference with the Fletcher School.

April 2015

Attachment-1 (2)In Puerto Rico, with IMPACT Leadership 21 and UN Women at the Are We There Yet Panel on Women in the private & public sector.

photo (57)Speaking at the Tribeca Film Festival Anti-Summit – Drones for Good

March 2015

unnamedMonday, March 9th, kicks off the beginning of the of the 59th Session of the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). Join the US National Committee for UN Women and its Metro NY Chapter for two CSW parallel events on March 9th. You can register for the afternoon panel and evening reception in advance.

Join Us Wednesday, March 25th The 2nd Annual Power of Collaboration Global Summit at the United NationsClick here for most current agenda and to register.

photo (52)

February 2015

NYU Women in Foreign Policy Event – Thursday, February 26th

February 2015, 27th

SUNY Business School Career Fair, Friday, February 27th

January 2015

photo (51)Panel discussion and Reception – UN Women  – Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Tuesday, January 20th,

December 2014

Panel discussion – Women in International Security – The Role of Corporations in Global SecurityWednesday, December 10th, 6pm-7:30pm. International Crisis Group, 708 Third Ave, 17th Floor, NY

PurePoint Happy Hour, The DL, 95 Delancey, 5pm-8pm, Friday, December 12th

December 8th Conversations with Men, Impact Leadership 21

December 6th Book Signing, Sisters Uptown Book Store Harlem

photo (44)

November 2014

NYC Mission Unstoppable Book Signing with Co-authors, Dr. George C. Fraser, Haki Ammi, and Nya Reynolds and Les Brown

photo (17)

October 2014

National Black MBA Association – High Tea EventOctober 18th

University of Pittsburgh, PA, Homecoming WeekendOctober 26th

September 2014

Deborah Goldstein’s Women’s Advancement Compact Hosts –  Charisma or Con – September 9th 6:30PM

PurePoint Launch Event at The Attic – NYC – September 25th – 5pm-8PM

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August 2014

Travel Security Initiative Focus Group  – August 13th – Thank you for participating in the focus group. The next one will be held August 28th at 3pm EST!

 Webinar  – August 20th – Peace, Serenity, and Security – 5 Key Tips When Traveling on Business Abroad – recording will be available soon

July 2014

July 17th – Promoting new book Mission Unstoppable at the United Nations with Impact Leadership 21

 June 2014

photo (14)

Promoting my new book with George Fraser at his PowerNetworking Conference in Dallas

April 2014
photo (13)

Speaking to students at Brooklyn College on Safety,  Security and Entrepreneurship

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text:
Fake News has been a way for unverified News sources to spread false information for political gain on the Internet.

What is Fake News? Edit

As new versions of the World Wide Web have been implemented such as web 2.0 and web 3.0, users have been able to share and post any information they want onto the Internet. While this is a good way to expand the information that is online for individuals to access, this too could be a bad thing for society. Fake News is a way that authors can bend the truth for political gain by taking what could be a real news story and adding false and unsupported information to it. This is very regularly seen on Social Media platforms such as Facebook.

While it doesn't seem like a made-up news story would be harmful to society, individuals often times take what the read to be the truth. This is to say that if an individual believes a fake news story and they take action, other individuals could be put in harms way. Not only could individuals potentially hurt others physically, but when certain places or people are mentioned in a fake news story, this could also lead to harmful online social behaviors as well, such as cyber bullying of those involved in the story.

Negative Outcomes of Fake News Edit

One example of this is the story of Edgar Maddison. This man read a Fake News story during the most recent election that discussed a conspiracy theory and Hilary Clinton. While a small pizza shop was named in the fake news story, Maddison took an assault rifle to the restaurant where he caused patrons to flee and shot a single bullet.

Future of Fake News Edit

as fake news stories become more prominent on social media platforms and on search engines such as Google, there is now a rise of Online giants that are beginning to rise up in an attempt to limit the amount of false information that society reads.

20161118 fake news

Top 5 most popular news stories found on Facebook during the 2016 election.

Tim Berners-Lee Edit

Tim Berners-Lee, the man who created the World Wide Web spends a large portion of his current career focusing on limiting fake news. In 2017 he called on corporations such as Facebook and Google to look into ways to stop this information from being spread. Berners-Lee discusses that many people in the modern world gain a lot of their news information from these platforms. It is up to these companies to find ways monitor what information is being seen by users.

What can be done? Edit

Just recently, Facebook and Google have discussed ways they will attempt to combat the spread of fake news. The idea they have is the implementation of a program called, "Fact Check." This is a tag that will be included within Googles search engine to supply an accuracy report next to news articles on the web. If the article has been fact checked, users will know they can trust the information within the source.

References Edit

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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 7:54 a.m., Monday, February 5, 2007

2007 spring enrollment slightly dips at UH

Advertiser Staff

Preliminary numbers show a decrease of 84 students at the University of Hawai'i's 10 campuses for the spring semester.

The opening enrollment figures were released by the university last week and show 46,308 students are registered for classes, a drop of 0.2 percent compared to spring 2006 — the first year of a decrease in spring headcount enrollments after four years of steady growth.

UH-Manoa's enrollment of 18,959 is 122 fewer students, or a drop of 0.6 percent than at a comparable date in spring 2006. UH Hilo experienced a slight increase of 18 students, or 0.6 percent jump, for a total enrollment of 3,287. UH West O'ahu's enrollment increased by 17 students, or 2.1 percent, for a total of 820.

Enrollment at the university's seven community colleges stands at 23,242, which is just three students more than last spring. Hawai'i Community College and Kapi'olani Community College posted the only increases of the seven campuses, and Kapi'olani CC experienced the largest numerical and percentage increase of all campuses with 167 more students, or 2.5 percent, for a total enrollment of 6,911.

Hawai'i CC enrollment stands at 2,130 students, an increase of 32 students or 1.5 percent compared to last spring; Honolulu CC has 3,803 students enrolled, 12 fewer than last spring or a 0.3 percent drop; Kaua'i CC has 953 students enrolled, three fewer than last spring or a 0.3 percent drop; Leeward CC enrollment stands at 5,309, a decrease of 72 students or a 1.3 percent drop compared to a year ago; Maui CC registered 2,597 students, 46 fewer students or a 1.7 percent drop; and Windward CC registered 1,539 students, 63 fewer than a year ago, or a 3.9 percent drop.

Separately, more than 27,000 registrations in noncredit programs are expected throughout the UH system.


text:
Thursday, 24 January 2013

San Fransisco video

My friend sent me this video of a tram going down a road in San Francisco in 1905 and I found it so interesting! It's so amazing because you can see everything going on around with their everyday lives and it's really quite interesting to see what people were like and how everything has changed!

Just watch, it's so awesome going down that street like that! It's like a time machine!
Jess xx

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Friday, 1 February 2013

Train of thought.

I use the train quite a lot, it's relatively cheap and most of the time, quicker than the car. Sure, it can get pretty expensive if you go to somewhere half way across the country or in London, and sometimes they're delayed by stupid amounts but most of the time it's good!
I like saving all of my train tickets like I save my cinema tickets, they give me little reminders of what happened and what happened that day!
I can roughly place who I was most likely with using the date, and half the time, if the destination isn't somewhere I usually go, I'll be able to remember that day quite easily! It's a nice way of having a memento of a day out without having something proper that I spent money on specifically. It's quite lucky that I have a good memory for dates and places really!
I have my train tickets all in a little bundle by my computer where it's easy to find, so next time I go somewhere by train, I can add the ticket to my pile! It's a stack of memories really!
I know it seems a bit weird, but I love being able to remember little things, because they're usually the good memories you cherish when they're in the past and the people are gone. You don't remember the big things so much as their little quirks and habits and things especially unique to them. It's the same with places and names. I associate some places with people, and in turn I remember the times I've had there with people!

My stack of train tickets!
I hope that I have a pile that's huge eventually, and hopefully I'll be able to remember what happened yeas in the future!
Jess xx

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Monday, February 24, 2014

Wildlife Photographer Catches First Snow Leopard Kill Ever

Snow leopards are amongst the most elusive and endangered animals on the planet. They are so rare in fact that it is estimated that only about 50-60 of them still exist in the wild. Some of the big cats are known to inhabit the Hemis National Park in India, which is where a wildlife photographer recently made history by capturing what is believed to be the first images of a snow leopard making a kill.

Adam Riley was recently leading a snow leopard tour in the national park, which is located in the heart of the Himalaya, when he got the chance of a lifetime. Riley's series of photos show the cat on the prowl. Eventually, the predator catches sight of a small herd of mountain goats and goes in pursuit. The result is inevitable of course, but since the big cats are so rare in the wild, no one has ever captured images of the hunt before.

National Geographic has more details on the story, as well as a series of photos that include Riley's explanation of what was happening at the time. In some of the photos it is actually difficult to see the snow leopard, as it blends so well into its background. Those photos explain why the cats are sometimes referred to as the "Gray Ghosts of the Himalaya," with their natural camouflage helping them to blend well with their surroundings.

The images are definitely dramatic. Here's a sample of what Adam was able to capture.

M Wakeling said...

That's fantastic, there's something about the snow leopard that fires up the imagination.

Loving the blog by the way, I've read some fascinating articles on here. The Nanga Parbat in Winter updates are great too.

Kraig Becker said...

Thank you! I'm so glad you're enjoying the adventures that I share. :)

shah said...
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