text:
"Blood Simple" Kicks Off Coen Bros. Retrospective at The Loft Tonight

1 comment

The Loft is celebrating the Coen Brothers all month long in September. The retrospective kicks off tonight with their first film, Blood Simple, a noir tribute that holds up great almost three decades after its release.

From the Loft:

With their debut feature film, the entertainingly nasty noir Blood Simple, Joel and Ethan Coen announced to moviegoers everywhere that they’d better buckle up for a very bumpy ride. Blood Simple is the blackest, “noir-iest” of film noirs — a twisted homage to the classic crime thrillers of the ‘40s, shot through with that distinctly offbeat Coen mojo. Yes, there’s plenty of blood to be sure, but things are seldom simple, although the premise is straightforward enough. Marty, a wealthy Texas bar owner (Dan Hedaya), discovers his unhappy wife, Abby (Frances McDormand), is having an affair with his sympathetic bartender, Ray (John Getz), so he hires a most unsavory private detective (M. Emmet Walsh, giving the performance of a lifetime as one of the sleaziest, sweatiest private eyes ever to ooze across the screen) to bump them off. So begins a calculating round of diabolical double and triple crosses that build to a shocking, bloodcurdling climax in which seemingly everyone involved is both a potential victim AND a killer. In Blood Simple, the Coen Brothers reinvent the noir genre and parlay a pearl-handled revolver, a misplaced lighter, a string of not-so-fresh fish, and a body that refuses to stay dead into a dark delight that is clever, suspenseful, and sometimes downright bizarre. Winner of the 1985 Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and stylishly shot by future Coen collaborator Barry Soddenfeld, Blood Simple is an evil-minded masterpiece that brought an invigorating new vision to the world of indie cinema.

Showtime is 7 p.m. at Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway.

Showing 1-1 of 1

Add a comment


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Truncated: length

WARC-Type: response

text:
News & Opinion » Currents Feature

Hidden Agenda?

Parents raise concerns that a Tucson charter school has ties to a Turkish nationalist movement

No one can knock the numbers. In recent years, students at Tucson's Sonoran Science Academy have secured stellar scores in math, science and other categories. The academy has earned glowing mentions in national magazines such as U.S. News and World Report, and in 2009, was deemed Charter School of the Year by the Arizona Charter School Association.

But some parents of children who attend the academy on West Sunset Road believe it harbors goals reaching far beyond academia. They suspect the Sonoran Academy of being part of a confederation of learning institutions secretly linked to, and advancing, the cause of Turkish scholar and Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen.

While most of those parents have resisted coming forward, fearing reprisal from an organization they say is known to target critics, one parent did agree to speak to the Weekly if we pledged to keep her identity hidden. The parent says she represents others at the academy who've become suspicious about the striking similarities of its educational programs to those of other schools around the United States which are operated by Turkish-born staff members.

She says teachers and administers freely circulate among these schools. At the same time, says the parent, the Sonoran Academy seems constantly to be bringing Turkish educators into the United States, and subjecting students to substitute teachers while the teachers await work visas.

According to this parent, all of these ties may lead covertly back to the Gülen movement, named for the scholar, who founded a network of schools around the world and now lives in exile in Pennsylvania. She says several Sonoran Academy parents believe the school has a hidden agenda to promote Gülen's brand of Turkish nationalism, advance sympathy for that country's political goals such as winning acceptance into the European Union, and discourage official acknowledgement of Turkey's genocide against the Armenians during World War I.

"We found one document, in Turkish, that talks about the purpose of these charter schools," says the parent. "They refer to them very explicitly as schools (belonging) to their movement. They're calculating, and they say if they can have something like 600 schools, then every year, they can produce 120,000 sympathizers for Turkey.

"I sent my kids to this school because I wanted them to meet regular Muslims and to see them as ordinary people," she says. "But when I find that my kids are to be turned into genocide-deniers, that's very disturbing to me."

Fatih Karatas is principal of the academy's middle school. He calls such claims ridiculous.

"We don't have any kind of connections or any kind of relations with that movement or group. A public school can not be affiliated in any way with other institutions or groups because of the regulations, because of the charters."

He also says his school has a diverse staff, native to countries ranging from Turkey to Mexico, which he considers a benefit. "But we're not promoting a certain ideology. ... These are defamatory allegations that are not based on any proof or evidence."

Still, the Sonoran Academy isn't the first Turkish-American-run charter school in United States to be accused of links to Gülen. Parents at the Beehive Science and Technology Academy in Holladay, Utah, have also raised concerns that their school is linked to this movement. And according The Salt Lake Tribune, one Beehive teacher was fired when his lesson plan about World War II and the Holocaust prompted a discussion in which the school's principal purportedly questioned that genocide.

Although Utah's State Charter School Board cleared Beehive of deliberately promoting Gülen beliefs, lawmakers there have continued to probe its finances. The school-board investigation revealed that Beehive received loans from administrators at other Turkish-American schools, and from executives of the Accord Institute, a California-based organization with a Turkish-American staff. Accord provides educational consulting services and develops education models for programs for schools including Tucson's Sonoran Academy. But Karatas, calls the institute a "private organization," and says he's unaware of any ties between Accord and Gülen.

Other connections raise more questions. They include the Pacifica Institute, which operates the "Turkish Olympiads," in which Sonoran Academy students are encouraged to participate. The Olympiad contests range from essay writing and singing to poetry composition. According to its Web site, the institute was formed by Turkish-Americans in California with a mission of promoting cross-cultural awareness.

In December, the Pacifica Institute co-hosted a Gülen conference with the University of Southern California, and actively promotes Gülen beliefs on its Web site.

Indeed, the Gülen movement's own Web site seems to lay the groundwork for claims made by the Tucson parent. It discusses the group's rapidly expanding, worldwide educational facilities which have "made Gülen's network the most influential Turkish-Islamic movement both in Turkey and abroad. ... In the field of education, this part of the identity is however not stressed and teachers from outside the (movement) work at these schools as well. They may be non-Muslims and in many cases the pupils have never heard of Fethullah Gülen."

The Weekly was provided with a list of Turkish staff members that have rotated through various schools and the Accord Institute—another strategy promoted by the Gülen Web site.

Of course, all of this could be purely coincidental. But the Tucson mother says many parents feel increasingly betrayed by what they consider the Sonoran Academy's ongoing secrecy.

"Other parents say, 'I could almost be OK with this if they were out in the open about it.' But the (school) has done such a phenomenal job of keeping this a secret."

However, Karatas suggests those who make such claims are flirting with trouble.

"I'm hoping that they know that these are defamatory allegations which may put them in trouble later on. These are excelling schools. ... I hope they are aware of what they're doing."

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-170-22-195.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-43
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for October 2017
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


text:
The 11 Most Beautifully Futuristic Race Cars of the 1960s

This was a fun one. I put in the better part of a week, and it also spawned my TV cars article. The art credit goes to Aaron Miller though, he put in the leg work to get pictures he could use.

The 1960s saw some of the most beautifully futuristic race cars the world has ever seen, and many of the shapes below continue to influence race cars and road cars alike, 50 years later. Blindingly fast, they were occasionally so advanced that they used government-funded tech.

These 11 pushed the boundaries just that little bit further in pursuit of absolute speed.

1. McLaren Mk6

Founded by the legendary Bruce McLaren, most of McLaren’s 1960s creations were ahead of their time, including the team’s amazing 1968 F1 car with then-unheard of advances in front wings. McLaren’s Can-Am Mk6 was unbeatable in 1967 and ran away with the championship. It was so futuristic that a kit car version became the star car for the TV Show Hardcastle & McCormick almost 20 years later.

2. Lola T70

Lola has made some legendary race cars, including the Mk6 GT, which Ford evolved into the all-conquering GT40. In 1966, the dominant car in Can-Am racing was the long, low, and swooping Lola T70. The innovations from this car would later lead to the T160 along with new trends in airflow with an angular body, downward sloping nose, and a pronounced spoiler. Lolas were campaigned by guys like Dan Gurney and James Garner, and the T70 was even picked by George Lucas to represent “normal” cars in his first film, THX 1138, “filmed on location in the 21st century.”

3. Ferrari 312P

Known for setting trends and then bucking them, Ferrari had a litany of success in the ‘60s including the future F1 concept Ferrari Sigma GP, and the famous 250 GTO Breadvan was built specifically to defy Enzo. Its most futuristic model, though, was this: the 312P. It’s like a futuristic version of a futuristic car.

4. Ferrari 330 P4

Its shape would spawn a dozen imitators, but none could match the 330 P4’s 4.0 liter V-12 song. The P4’s only fault was that it was designed to combat the Ford GT40 at Le Mans.

5. Ford GT40 Mark IV

The Ford GT40 Mark IV was a shot right at Ferrari. The Ford GT40 was so futuristic in the ’60s they made a modern version 40 years laterThen another after that. The fourth iteration was built for a singular purpose: put a swoopy, 100 percent American cowboy boot right into the backside of the boys from Maranello. At Le Mans in 1967, it was mission accomplished.

6. Chapparal 2J

In 1962, F1 racer Hap Sharp and Texan Jim Hall founded a race company that lead the 1960s in aerodynamic innovation and futuristic designs. Among their innovations were the 2D that featured side pod radiators and the 2F with a huge wing and big block Chevy. But what they are really known for is the Chaparral 2J, aka the “Sucker Car.” Designed in 1969, the 2J was campaigned in 1970 before being outlawed. A snowmobile engine hooked up to two huge fans pulled from a friggin’ tank actually sucked air from under the car and created such downforce that the car was literally stuck to the track.

7. Porsche 906

Porsche has been futuristic since building its first sports car: In the ’60s, it practically definedthe genre. Its opening shot into the battle of futuristic race cars, the 906 would be the framework for Porsche’s immensely successful 917s and even 962s. Lean, low, and fast, Porsche’s low-slung boxer engines allowed for a height of a mere 33 inches and created a new aerodynamic profile unseen until this time. To quote Jayne from Firefly…”I’ll be in my bunk.”

8. Marcos Mantis XP

Yes, that’s a real race car. Only one was built and it boasts semi-gullwing doors and a Perspex (think Lexan) engine cover. Initially powered by a three-liter Brabham engine, it raced only once and was relocated to the U.S. Amazingly, it still exists.

9. Howmet TX Turbine

It was powered by a jet engine. A jet engine!!! The Howmet TX (Turbine eXperimental) is what happens when the government walks away from an assault helicopter development and the contractor doesn’t have any other use for the engine.

10. Porsche 917

This falls into the “Well Duh!” department. First campaigned in 1969, the 917 wasn’t just futuristic, it spawned a spree of successful Porsche endurance racers and inspired a line of kit cars and imitators for decades to come. Obviously Steve McQueen drove one.

11. Maserati Tipo 61 “Birdcage”

Technically it started production in 1959, but was raced into the early ’60s by guys like Carroll Shelby before he started making Cobras. The stunning “Birdcage” Maserati’s curvy lines sparked the era of futuristic race cars that, in turn, influences our road-going cars to this day.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

The odd musings and automotive observations of a guy who willingly calls himself Mental

%d bloggers like this:


text:
An Angel Named Lydia

It is with  sadness and tears in my eyes, that I would like to inform everyone that our dearest Manang Lydia passed away last December. She died because of a vehicular accident when she was on her way to attend Simbang Gabi in her hometown in Samar.

At first, I could not  and did not want to believe it really happened. I cried myself to sleep that night and cried the whole day in bed the next day, our 3rd wedding anniversary.

She could not just die. She has so many dreams for her family. She has many talents that she has not taught me. She has not given me the recipe for the siomai that we have been trying to perfect. She hasn’t heard Aki say Payyyyyys (surprise!). She is only 40 years old. She has 4 biological and 2 adopted kids. She does not have a lot but she gives and gives and gives. She promised to come back and take care of me when I give birth to my next child. She’s active in their church. She could not just die. Not that way. Not now.

If you have been reading my blog, you’d know that she was not just an employee. We love her and treated her like family. The last time we talked which was November, she said she’d coming back this January. Maybe, if she woke up late that fateful morning and decided to miss the mass, she would probably be here in with us. Or maybe, she could have just went back to Manila a few weeks earlier and attended the Simbang Gabi here instead. I could have had a partner in potty training Aki.

I think about and worry about her family too. When we last talked, I semi scolded her for not telling me that Elmer, her husband had been sick and needed medication. Her dream for Angela, her eldest, if for her to finish HRM and work for the restaurant of her cousin in Japan. As for Ella, Manang wants her to pursue her daughter’s dream of being part of the police force. For Jeffrey, her only son, Manang wanted to buy a small piece of land. Can someone who has so many dreams, who has many dependents, who is active in church and in the community,  die just like that?
Oh well, I try not to think about her death and just try to think about how she was when she was alive.

I remember her everyday. All the time.

I remember her every time  I look at my roses. I was supposed to replace them with other easier-to-maintain plants. We have somewhat neglected the roses ever since Cheryl left. The plants did not flower for around 2 months. But, on the week, Manang became and angel, one  of the plants bloomed a very red rose.

I remember her every time, I go to my in-laws’ house and see the make shift basketball ring that she made. Aki received three rings and managed to ruin all 3 of them in just a matter of days.I told Manang to throw the rings away. Instead of following my request, she took one of the rings to my in-laws and attached it to the gate so Aki can play basketball anytime.

I remember her every time it rains or when the sun is high. She fixed my umbrella without me asking her to.

I remember her every time I see the DIY hook that she made so we can use the beams in the roof of service area, as sampayans.She is always been like that. Very proactive and resourceful.

Continue reading

My Picky Eater’s Top Food Picks: Banana Waffle Sandwich

2 Whole Wheat Bread

1 Banana – Em shared some surprising banana facts here

1 Tablespoon Star Margarine Sweet Blend

Simply mash the banana. Mix with the margarine. Spread on the bread. Put another bread on top. Toast in the waffle maker for a minute or two. Cut into fun shapes. Yum-oh in less than 3 minutes.

I was supposed to put some cinammon but I could not find where Lotlot kept it.

After several bites around the edges, the sandwich looked like a dog. Or at least I was able to convince Aki that it had a head, a tail and legs. Aki made a house and a ladder with a door. Continue reading

Our 2012 Family Goal: Wealth Management

That is my fancy term for save more, spend less and investly wisely. Doesn’t  “wealth management” sound more motivating? Every time I pass by MiniStop and get tempted to buy another cheesecake ice cream, I silently say “wealth management” to myself and then walk away. Same case when were eating out last Saturday. Simply saying “wealth management” made that  all-meat pizza seem less appetizing.

Here are our specific steps to  get closer to our 2012 goal.

1.  Review our Finances. We made the following files
– Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth
– Summary of Constant and Variable Cash Flow
– Mutual Fund and UITF performance trackers

2. Organize our financial documents.  Should something happen to one of us (knock on wood!), this expandable folder will make it easier for the bereaved spouse to move on.

3. Go back to budgetting. I am proud to say that Franco and I are very good at staying on budget.

4. Learn more about financial planning
– Read books – check! I highly recommend these two books.

– Subscribe to financial planning blogs. I did not just put them on my favorites. I subscribed to the blogs via email so I won’t miss a post.
–  Attend a seminar. This is still a question mark. I think we know the basics already. What we need would be guidance on how to invest.  Enter specific step # 5. Continue reading

Best Cakes in the South

Are in The Cake Planet!

If you are heading south this coming weekend, go go go go go! We are not dessert people and in case you haven’t notice, I don’t have posts on restos that we visited.  So recommending this secret bakeshop in Bicutan  means their cakes are really really good!

This is the Santa Cruz. Isn’t that the most interesting name for a cake?  John, the owner and baker, was there when we visited. I could not decide which of his cakes to try. I just told him to give me a slice of  the most interesting cake that they have. The Santa Cruz has layers of chocolate mousse, chocolate cake and lemon cream. My husband who does not like citrus-y desserts liked it! I was in love!

Franco, who grew up with lactose intolerance which resulted to avoidance of anything sweet except for longganiza, ordered the usual – chocolate cake. True to its name which I don’t remember but it sounded like Flourless Super Moist Chocolate-y Cake, it was super moist and chocolatey!   Continue reading


text:
Tag Archives: Weather

Sometimes I like it hot, sometimes very cold.

If I could choose where I lived based on the weather, I would choose Vancouver Island in beautiful BC Canada. Never too hot, never too cold and without the rain of Vancouver. Another choice would be Nairobi Kenya for the same … Continue reading

Posted in random | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

text:
Kevin McDonald

image description

(Guest Instructor)

Comedian, actor, writer and director Kevin McDonald founded ?The Kids in the Hall? with friend Dave Foley, after they met in Toronto at Second City, and the television series ran from 1988-1995. In the troupe's television series and stage shows, he portrays several popular recurring characters, such as the King of Empty Promises, Sir Simon Milligan, and Jerry Sizzler. McDonald went on to appear in a variety of films including Boy Meets Girl, Lilo & Stitch, ?Lilo & Stitch: The Series?, and Epic Movie. On television, he has appeared on ?The Martin Short Show,? ?Ellen,? ?That '70s Show,? ?Seinfeld,? ?Friends,? ?NewsRadio,? ?MADtv,? ?Arrested Development,? and ?Corner Gas.? McDonald has also done voice work for various animated series, including Nickelodeon's ?Invader Zim,? ?The Angry Beavers,? ?Catscratch,? and ?Clerks: The Animated Series.? He also played an imaginary friend named Ivan in the episode ?Sight For Sore Eyes? on ?Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends,? appeared in the music video for "Roses" by Outkast, and made an appearance in ?Tim and Eric's Awesome Show.?

In 2006 McDonald hosted a CBC Television special, featuring several of Canada's best-known sketch comedy troupes. "Sketch with Kevin McDonald" won a Canadian Comedy Award (Best Taped Live Performance - The Minnesota Wrecking Crew). He was recently at the Just for Laughs Festival with the reunion of Kids in the Hall, and also with his show "Hammy and the Kids" with Craig Northey, based on his two dysfunctional families, his father ("Hammy") and the Kids in the Hall, as well as ?Death Comes to Town? on CBC.


text:
Another Implicit Parameter Infelicity

Ashley Yakeley
Mon, 4 Feb 2002 13:13:56 -0800

At 2002-02-04 02:01, Simon Peyton-Jones wrote:

>Neither GHC nor Hugs allow a polymorphic type variable
>(the argument of Maybe) to be instantiated to a polymorphic
>type.  Systems which do are called 'impredicative' (or is it the
>other way around?).  Going impredicative has big negative
>implications for type inference, and I have always steered well clear!

That's not what's happening here with implicit parameters, is it? No type
variable is being instantiated.

I'm pretty sure this does not need impredicativeness:

     p :: forall a. Maybe ((?param :: a) => a)
     p = return g;

It's more or less equivalent to this:

     p :: forall a. Maybe (a -> a)
     p = return g;

...and not to be confused with this:

     p :: Maybe (forall a. a -> a)
     p = return g;

Or am I misunderstanding something?

Ashley Yakeley, Seattle WA


text:
[Numpy-discussion] performing operations in-place in numpy

Gael Varoquaux gael.varoquaux@normalesup....
Thu Jul 9 09:51:25 CDT 2009

On Thu, Jul 09, 2009 at 09:35:06AM +0000, Pauli Virtanen wrote:
> Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:03:47 +0100, Citi, Luca kirjoitti:
> [clip]
> > Excuse me if I insist, PyArray_Conjugate is not the problem. If when
> > using the numpy API, it is accepted something like:

> >     obj1 = PyArray_CreateSomehowAnArray(....);
> >     obj2 = PyArray_DoSomethingWithArray(obj1,...);
> >     obj3 = PyArray_DoSomethingElseWithArray(obj1,...);
> >     Py_DECREF(obj1);

> > then there is no way my patch is guaranteed to not break things.

> So it seems.

> PyUFunc_GenericFunction is a part of the public C-API, so I guess this
> discussion is moot. I doubt we can change ufunc semantics at this point,
> and I don't see ways in which one could distinguish between "temporary
> arrays" and refcount-1 arrays used in extension modules.

OK, so from what I understand, the proposed change what induce a major
change on the C API. So it seems that we can't just merge it in.

However, I really like the idea: I think it is a simple and clever
optimisation, that is transparent to the user. Do you think it is
possible to keep it around, think about it, and merge it in later, eg in
numpy 2.0?

More information about the NumPy-Discussion mailing list


text:
Week 26: Harrison Shirt

Happy halfway through the year week!

I leave for Japan on Tuesday, so I’m frantically trying to wrap up everything before then.

I did decide to go ahead and cut out the fabric behind the lace, which may have been a mistake. It’s fine when I’m standing, but when I lean over it pulls away from my chest a bit. Also it feels very fragile – this has become a hand-wash only bra for sure. (I usually machine wash and lay flat or hang to dry.) It looks very nice, though.

Here’s the weird fisheye dart I added:
It really looks like it needs topstitching, and actually the fabric on the back would probably stay in place better if I did that, too. I’ll have to do that by hand, to, though, so we’ll see how I feel after a few wearings. I was worried the dart would leave extra visible bulk but actually it looks much smoother with the dart added because of just how much excess fabric there was. It’s not perfect, but it’s wearable. I’m hopeful that my next one will be even closer to a perfect fit.

I made fantastic progress on the shirt, too! The only thing I have left to do is the buttonholes and the buttons, which I really hope go smoothly. I’m going to have to make a test buttonhole or two before I start so I don’t wreck everything with the final step.

I’m so pleased with the collar – it went together really smoothly (probably due to all the hand basting I did), and the stopstitching is pretty even.

I really enjoyed this pattern – I’ll need to make a few fit tweaks for the next one I make, but there definitely will be a next one. I am also DEEPLY in love with this fabric – the seersucker is super easy to work with, and kind of sticks to itself so it doesn’t slide around while you’re working on it. It’s a nice change from the rayon. (I love the feel of the rayon but dang!)

The only official goal I have for next week is actually a goal for tomorrow – I gotta get those buttonholes and buttons sewn on pronto. But I’m bringing knitting needles and yarn with me, since I have a long flight and a whole lot of train rides ahead of me, and I’m planning to post as usual next week. I just… gotta figure out when to post so that it will come up at the normal time, haha.

Week 17 – Akita, Manila, honeycomb socks

Guys, I found the best matching thread, the best.

I love this thread so much. I’ve seen the variegated thread around and I’ve always wanted to try it, but I couldn’t ever really justify it.

After two attempts to sew that hem in a straight line, and then looking at it and going “You know, even if I sew the perfect hem, that black thread is going to stand out more than I like,” I took a trip down to the fabric store for some thread. Even though it obviously doesn’t match the repeat, it stands out a lot less than the black did.

About the wavy hem: I am pretty sure that I was pulling the fabric a bit too hard while sewing. I’ve been trying to make sure I’m pinching the fabric up when I don’t use pins as Janet Pray recommends in her Craftsy class on garment industry tips, but in this case I think I was a little overzealous.

I decided not to take in the side seams after all, although if I make this pattern again I will probably go down a few sizes and grade out for the hips instead of going with the rectangle. In this case, the checkered fabric actually matched up reasonably well (not perfectly, because I still can’t sew a straight line), and I didn’t want to mess with the lines. I can always belt it if I want more waist definition.

There are still a few places where the raw edge didn’t get caught, so I’d like to hand-tack those down before I wash the shirt, but for now I am calling this one done!

While I was at Joann, I found some bias tape for the York that is still waiting for me to redo its neckline:

I was going to go with brown, but the brown in the pre-cut bias tape was very much not the right brown to match the leaves in this flower pattern. My hope is that the blue will bring out the blue-grey in the flowers, and still provide a nice contrast.

Lastly, I did indeed cut out the fabric for my Manila leggings:

I did zero pattern matching, and I’m hoping that it’s a busy enough pattern that it won’t matter. The other fabric I have is a larger repeat and is probably more important to match, so hopefully I have enough extra that I can actually do that.

I did almost no alterations to this pattern, besides shortening it a half inch on the lengthen/shorten line. Based on the body measurements in the chart, it looks like my waist/hip measurements match the size I picked pretty exactly, so I’m hopeful that this will “just work” without having to do a lot. Also, it’s super stretchy fabric. As long as it doesn’t horribly distort those little pendant motifs, I’ll call it a victory.

These socks, UGH.

You will notice they are still on the needles. However, all I have left to do is graft the tubular bind off. I just ran out of time. You know motivation is bad when it takes a full week to get through less than 15 rows. It isn’t even anything about these socks in particular! I think I’m just sick of socks, and need to do something else for awhile.

I’ve never worried about matching socks with my handmade socks, because for the most part my sock yarn is dyed in blobs and there’s not a good way to match anyway. I can’t decide if the very obvious inverted stripe directions bothers me or not. It definitely doesn’t bother me enough to take them out and redo one of them, haha.

Goals for next week:

Looking at the Manila pattern, it looks like it should be a pretty quick sew. I’m going to assume I’m going to have to pick out at least one seam, and I can already assume I’m going to want to hand-baste the waistband closed before I stitch it to the legs of the pants. So assuming Manila is probably a two-week project at current motivation levels:

  • Sew inseam, side seam, and crotch seams on Manila
  • Unpick the bias tape from York
  • Finish the damn honeycomb socks already
  • Gauge swatch the yarn for the bolero

Week 8 Report: Finished York and Socks 2

York is done, yaaaay!

Someday I’ll learn to take non-crappy pictures!

So I finished it on Tuesday after work and of course had to wear it first thing on Wednesday. It fits pretty well, but now that the sleeves are in I notice that the back pulls a bit when I reach forward, so next time I make this pattern I’ll do a broad upper back adjustment to account for that. I picked up some of what feels like a cotton crepe maybe? at Goodwill, and I think it would be pretty great for this. It might be the next thing I do after my mom’s cardigan, we’ll see.

I was going to have my friend take a pic of me wearing it on Saturday when she was in town, but I failed to remember while she was here, so it’s another mediocre indoor shot.

Meet Ethel:

Ethel. (The machine, not the cat. The cat is Kaylee, and she’s clearly been pressing her nose to the window.)

Ethel saved my bacon. As expected, I was too lazy to try to figure out what was wrong with my other machine (seen in the background of that pic), so I pulled out Ethel. Ethel didn’t have a name until this week, but after blowing through the last few seams I had here with zero problems – zero, no bunching, no eating my fabric, I barely even noticed this wasn’t quilting cotton – Ethel got a name.

At some point when I expressed an interest in sewing when I was probably 10 years old, my great grandmother and I went into the cabinet at her church and she pulled this one out for me. I assume it was one she’d loaned them and was taking back?  I actually don’t remember ever asking about it, but she was very devout and I highly doubt she’d steal from the Church, so….

Anyway, my great grandmother’s name was not Ethel (it was Anne), because I thought it was a little weird to name my sewing machine after my great grandmother, but I am pretty sure her best friend’s name was Ethel (or was it Edith…), and I like the Alice Cooper reference, and so Ethel it is. I’m sure my other machines will get names as they come to me.

The tension on that cuff topstitching looks wonky now that I see it up close like that, but it is way less wonky than it would have been if I’d done it on the other machine

Thanks, Ethel.

As far as my mom’s cardigan goes, I pulled out the pattern and did all my measuring and some math to figure out what adjustments I need to do. I didn’t take pictures because it was me and a pencil and a ruler and measuring tape, and that is just not super exciting.

My mom and I have basically the opposite body shapes – I’m on the shorter side, tend to put on weight in my hips and thighs, and am a pretty average cup size so I’ve never really had to make bust adjustments. My mom is tall and busty and puts on her weight in the stomach area, so all the adjustments I’m just starting to get used to making for myself are the opposite of what I’m going to have to do for her. Based on the measurements I’ve done, it looks like I’ll definitely be doing a full bust adjustment (FBA), as expected, and also adding a little width at the waist. I’m going to trace off the pattern and do a tissue fitting for her probably next weekend, which will be a little weird because it’s a knit garment so the tissue isn’t a true representation. I think it will still be useful, though, to make any length adjustments she wants and to make sure the widths are at least ballpark.

Two at a time socks, oh my gosh.

The setup for these was very awkward, since I’m doing two on one circular instead of two circulars, and also I had to re-wind the yarn so I had access to both ends. But once I got it all set up? This is awesome! There’s something kind of addicting about watching two pairs of socks be constructed at the same time. It is slower, obviously, but it doesn’t really feel that much slower.

I was going to do just a really basic rib, but as soon as I got going I realized I didn’t need the extra brain power just to handle the two-at-a-time thing, so I poked around in my newest knitting book, Lara Neel’s Sock Architecture, to see if there was any sort of basic, repetitive pattern that I could borrow for the top and leg of the sock, and found the single garter knit in her Strie pattern that is pretty much exactly the level of complexity I wanted in a quick knit – just enough to give it some variety so I’m not doing a 1×1 rib all the way down the sock. I think the color variations in the sock aren’t going to show off the pattern very well, but we’ll see.

(Side note: this book is awesome. I sort of hate following full patterns, but you can pick and choose heel and toe techniques from here and use them however you want. She has instructions for both top down and toe up socks, and if you are a pattern person, she spells out the pattern row by row and also has diagrams.)

Goals for next week:

  • trace off the pattern pieces for the cardigan
  • research FBA adjustment for knit fabrics and do it
  • finish the legs on the socks and maybe start down the heel flap?

Week 7 Report: Finished Socks and York Polish

As you might have intuited from the title, I did not quite finish York this week. I did get very close, though!

I went ahead and did the Hong Kong finish on the cuffs, since I had to cut extra bias tape anyway (or did I?) It does look very nice compared to my overlocked seams, and after the bias tape was cut it really wasn’t difficult.

I cut the bias tape the old-fashioned way this time, since I just needed a few separate strips, and the rayon played much, much more nicely than it did trying to do the continuous bias tape method. I’ll keep that in mind for future bias tape adventures.

Inner cuff, Hong Kong finished

After that went so well, I moved onto the neckline. I’m not gonna lie, the instructions for the neck binding confused the heck out of me. It looked like it was done like a waistband, but it was so narrow that I couldn’t figure out how to turn the edges underneath? And bias tape isn’t supposed to fray, so I thought “ok, maybe the edges of the tie are just left unfinished”. That plus the fact that my bias tape was so inconsistently sized meant that I wound up doing a more of a Hong Kong finish on the neckline, as well (although I didn’t topstitch, which in hindsight I really should have).

Yeah check out that uneven bias tape!

Basically, I’m pretty sure I did it all wrong, haha. Well, it’s a learning experience! I am not planning to take it out unless something terrible happens in the wash – which is entirely possible, since some of the edges of my bias tape were not on the true bias, and as such are in fact fraying a little already. Good thing I have long hair and nobody will see it?

I’m pretty sure that color bleeding is because I over-steamed, too 😦

I’m not too worried about it for now. The neckline still looks decent in the front, and the likelihood that anyone but another sewer will notice is pretty slim. And if I need to, this is a pretty easy detail to go back and fix at a later date.

Somehow my measurements were off and I had way too much bias tape for the neckline, even including the foot tails on both ends! I didn’t technically need to make new bias tape at all! I’m glad the cuffs were such a positive experience, otherwise I would be pretty annoyed.

I was going to finish off the hem, but the tension on my machine went pretty wonky. I tend to double-stitch if I need to double-fold a hem (once for the first turn, once for the second) because otherwise my hems slide all over, but on my first stitching pass the back wasn’t getting locked into the material at all, despite the fact it was the same tension I’ve been using for the whole project without any problems. I replaced the needle just in case, and played around with the tension on a scrap piece of material, but without any luck. I had a chunk of fuzz come out while I was stitching the neckline, so I should probably open it up and clean it out before I do anything else with it. Or maybe give up and use one of my other machines.

Similarly, I keep forgetting about the cuff topstitching step, but that will have to wait until the machine is back in order.

Since I should be able to start the next project this week (fingers crossed), a little more detail on that: it’s a cardigan for my mom, which is her Christmas present for 2016. I basically gave her an IOU for a single garment, because I didn’t want to try to make her something without her measurements, and I wanted her to get exactly what she wanted. She went with a medium-weight knit cardigan from McCall’s 6996 pattern, but with a hook and loop closure instead of the belt.

I did in fact finish the socks, though!

Not actually blocked yet, as you can see. Just put on the blockers for picture-taking purposes.

The yarn did in fact make it to the toes of both socks, which means I got two pairs of socks out of this one ball of Saucon Sock yarn. They are a little big, which is unfortunate but not the end of the world, since they are ankle socks, but with 44% cotton I am hoping they shrink up in the wash just a little bit. You can’t tell super well in the picture, but I messed up the decreases on the bottom sock – I knew the sock was running a little big, so I decreased down to 28 stitches on the bottoms vs. the 34 stitches on the top of the socks. On the top sock, I remembered to transfer those stitches to the other side before starting the decreases. On the bottom sock, I didn’t, so the decreases are placed a little lower.

That’s also the first sock, where I was still figuring out the cable pattern, so I’m kinda glad the mistakes are confined to the one sock, haha.

For my next socks, I want to try doing two at a time. I’ll probably stick with either a simple rib or stockinette for my first attempt at two-at-a-time socks to avoid confusion, and I’m not sure what yarn I’m going to grab from my stash yet but I’ve no shortage of sock yarn to choose from.

Goals for next week:

  • Hem the shirt
  • Topstitch shirt cuffs
  • Measure the pattern pieces for the cardigan
  • Measure mom again (I took basic measurements when we went pattern hunting to pick a close pattern size, but need some more to get a real fitting)
  • Start the next socks (not sure if they will be toe-up or top-down, but I’d like to get an inch or more in either way)

Week 5 Report: Seam Finishing and a Sleeve

To redo the bust dart, I had to take out the basted side seams. I was going to have to do that anyway, of course, to sew them for real, but that reminded me that there was a finishing step left for the back that I hadn’t done yet because I was waiting for the fit test: seam finishing, and the keyhole at the neckline.

I always want to do tidy, edge-free seam finishes. I feel like they make handmade clothes look so nice. I have a narrow hem foot and I keep thinking that one day I will master its use.

It wasn’t today.

Lopsided and coming out at the seams, sort of like my life.

Did it catch the edge? Mostly… I guess… but I think it’s uglier with the wavy lopsided thing than it would have been if I’d just overlocked it. I’ll probably restitch the worst parts without the narrow hem foot so they don’t fray.

I thought about doing what my old Singer sewing book calls a “clean-stitched hem”, where you just fold it over an eighth of an inch and stitch it, but after my machine tried to eat the fabric and it took me 10 minutes to pick out the resulting mess, I decided overlocking was going to be good enough for today.

The next adventure was topstitching the keyhole.

This part was actually not so bad, once I found the right foot. I don’t even know what the foot I used was meant for (straight stitch foot maybe?), but it had more surface area than most of my feet and I needed something that would hold down the rayon so it would stop bouncing around. I love the drape of this fabric but oh boy is it a pain to work with. I am hopeful that a good press closed will cure some of the waviness in the edge here, but it’s also possible I got a little to enthusiastic with the steam when I was pressing it in the first place. Good thing I have long hair and nobody’s gonna see this when I’m wearing it.

So! After I got the back seams all finished up, it was time for the sleeves. I dutifully added my easing stitches to the sleeve caps and then tried my damnedest to pin the sleeve in place. Seriously, rayon is so slippery. I got it down and eased in as best I could and then took it to the machine.

It’s not terrible! I mean I read the instructions wrong and forgot to start all the way at the beginning of the seam instead of at the notches, so I have to take it out, but I would probably have taken it out anyway because of those little unintentional pin-tucks you can see in the picture. But honestly considering how uneven the fabric was while I was sewing, and how hard it was to get it lined up at all? It could be worse.

I just look forward to the day I don’t have to sew every seam twice before I get it right, haha.

I didn’t get all the way through to the heel turn like I’d wanted, but I made it to the heel flap, at least. I debated mucking up the pattern at the beginning like I had on the previous sock so they would match, and then decided that was more effort than it was worth and went with the final pattern for the ankle.

As for that positivity side goal, this week was way better than last week, probably because I took a break from the news due to work responsibilities. It’s going to be a challenge to figure out how to stay informed and actively participate in democracy without regularly tipping over into despair.

Goals for next week:

  • Finish attaching sleeves and finish seams
  • Sew and finish side seams
  • Get through ankle decreases on the sock

Week 4 Report: Bias Tape

This week was my first attempt at making my own bias tape! I bought a set of bias tape makers a few months back, but haven’t had reason to use them yet. York calls for 3 yards of bias tape, and I figured this was as good a time as any to learn to make my own.

My 1/2″ bias tape maker in action. Pay no attention to my terrible stitch tension…

I probably should have started with an easier material. I did the continuous bias tape method, and man is that rayon slippery as hell. And it kept stretching a little every time I touched it, so trying to get even lines was not in the cards. My 1-inch strips were pretty all over the place, which explains why they didn’t fold over all that well going through the bias maker.

I’m not entirely sure it’s going to work out for this project, and I’m thinking I might buy some pre-packaged bias tape and revisit making my own in the future.

Finished bias tape

To make things even more fun, I measured wrong and cut a 9-inch square instead of an 11-inch square, so I only have 2 yards instead of the 3 the pattern calls for. If I decide to stick with the homemade bias tape instead of going storebought, I’ll probably make the next round using the short piecing method instead of the continuous loop.

Was pretty depressed most of the week and didn’t wind up doing a whole lot sewing-wise (or anything else-wise…). The bias tape was actually done last minute today so I’d have something to post, haha.

I got more work done with knitting, mostly because it is portable and I can do it on the bus. I still didn’t reach my goal of starting the second sock, but I did just put on the first one and it’s at the length where I need to start the toe.

Now that I’m comparing it directly to last week’s… it doesn’t look all that different, does it?

I weighed the existing sock (by necessity including some of the cord, but I avoided the needles) and it came in at 22g. My remaining ball is 27g. I might be able to squeeze a toe out in 2.5g, but that’s cutting it pretty close. I’m gonna put this sock on scrap yarn and start the next one, and we’ll see how I’m feeling about how much yarn is left when the second one is at this point.

I didn’t set any mending goals last week, but I did wind up doing some darning today while waiting for my mom to come by for lunch. I fixed a hole in one pair of pants and got halfway through another (should probably finish that off tonight…). Not exciting stuff, but it feels pretty good to make a dent in my pile.

The last two items in it are alterations – a pair of pants that is too long that I want to hem up before I destroy the legs by walking on them, and a shirt that has been driving me nuts by rolling up on the sides because it’s too narrow in the hips. I’m going to rip the seams and finish them individually, essentially leaving them split up the sides like some of my other ladies’ t-shirts.

Goals for next week:

  • Redo the bust dart in the shirt
  • Attach the sleeves
  • Get to the heel turn on sock #2
  • Try to stay positive about anything lol

Week 3 Report: York basting

Pieces cut and ready to go!

I didn’t have as much time as I’d expected this week because a lot of my sewing time is on Saturdays, and I spent yesterday at the Women’s March instead (and visiting family I hadn’t seen in weeks because of the snow lol). But today I did manage to get my sewing goals done!

In hindsight, this pattern would have been the perfect opportunity to practice pattern-matching on the back seam, but alas, I didn’t think of this until I was sewing up the back.

All that measuring last week paid off, because the main bodice fit first time around. I’ll probably let out a little at the hips (of course) to make it lay a little better, but as far as adjustments go, I’m feeling pretty good all around.

Yeah, that’s my kitchen. My apartment has terrible lighting everywhere else.

I might re-stitch the bust darts, because one of them is a little off-kilter. Fortunately the pattern is busy enough that if I don’t, I’m the only one who will ever know. (Also you, since you are reading this. Shh, it’s our secret.) And obviously I haven’t put in the sleeves yet. I wanted to make sure the main body fit before dealing with whatever sleeve issues I’m going to fight with. The pattern also says to attach the sleeve in the flat, which will be interesting – hopefully easier than in the round, but I’ve only done sleeves in the round before, so it will be a new experience.

I was less successful with my knitting goals. I’m still plugging away at the sock but I haven’t been working on it as regularly as I should, and I’m definitely not going to be done with the pair by Feb 1st.

I finally figured out what I’m doing with the cable pattern, though! It’s basically a fixed version of the previous pattern with some size variations on the chains.

The three rows it takes to do the twists are exactly the same, and then the plain rows between the twists are going to go in a 1, 3, 5, 3, 1 row repeat cycle. My cables are kind of all over the place in this pic but I’m going to keep them in continuous twists from now on (all twisting the same direction on a column).

My yarn ball is feeling a little light, and I’m hoping the cables aren’t eating more yarn than I was expecting. I was already going to be pretty close on the remainder of this skein! I guess I can work down to the toe and then start the next one, and do the toes in another color if I need to.

Mending is way less exciting, and unless I do something super cool, I’m not going to even bother with pictures. I got two items done rather than the three I’d wanted, but since my mending pile has been sitting there for weeks, it’s still a win, hah.

I sewed up a split seam on a pair of long johns I’d been really missing in all this cold, and after I bought some hand sanitizer I tackled a sweater that had gotten tree gum on it while I was hiding in the woods in November, and had been in my mending pile ever since. The internet told me it would work great, and it did – no more tree gum, yay!

Goals for next week:

  • Make bias tape for the shirt
  • Redo one of those bust darts
  • Attach the sleeves
  • Get to the next sock, whether we’re skipping the toe or not


text:
Skip to Content
The 190th General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Section 2B: Air pollution emergencies

Section 2B. If the commissioner of environmental protection, in this section called the commissioner determines that the condition or impending condition of the atmosphere in the commonwealth or in any part thereof constitutes a present or reasonably imminent danger to health, he may, with the approval of the governor, declare an air pollution emergency and cause the fact to be made known to the public.

The department of environmental protection, in this section called the department, after public hearing held in accordance with section two of chapter thirty A, may, and with the approval of the governor, establish, and from time to time revise, an air pollution emergency plan to protect the public health during periods of such declared emergencies. Said plan may include the imposition, during such periods, of controls and restrictions upon the use of certain fuels and fuel-burning installations, the practices of incineration and open burning, and the movement of specific types of motor vehicles, and said plan may include such other provisions as the department deems necessary to protect the public health during such emergency period.

During an air pollution emergency the commissioner may, with the approval of the governor, take whatever action is necessary to maintain and protect the public health, including but not limited to the implementing of the air pollution emergency plan, and prohibiting, restricting and conditioning emissions of dangerous or potentially dangerous air contaminants from whatever source derived, and requiring the evacuation of the public from, or restricting public entry into, designated areas. The commissioner shall clearly specify the geographical area to which such action shall apply.

If conditions which warrant the declaration of an air pollution emergency change or are so modified that they no longer constitute an actual or reasonably imminent danger to the public health, the commissioner shall, with the approval of the governor, declare the air pollution emergency terminated, and shall cause this fact to be made known to the public.

Any orders promulgated by the commissioner pursuant to this section, hereinafter called emergency orders, shall be enforced by personnel of the department of public health and by the state and local police. A court, judge or justice authorized to issue warrants in criminal cases may, upon complaint on oath by a person authorized to enforce emergency orders under this section that he believes that such an order is being violated in a particular property, premise or place, if satisfied that there is reasonable cause for such belief, issue a warrant identifying such property, premises or place and commanding such person to search such premises for further evidence of such violation. Information relating to trade secrets, secret processes or methods of manufacture or production shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed or received during the course of any such investigation; nor shall such information be used or disclosed in any public hearing under this section. Such enforcement personnel are further empowered to order any person having control of an air contamination source to stop and abate violation of any emergency order. Whoever knowingly fails within a reasonable time to comply with any such order to stop or abate giving due consideration to the practicability and to the physical and economic feasibility of compliance with such order shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty dollars nor more than ten thousand dollars. For the purpose of this paragraph, each day or part thereof of violation of any such order to stop or abate, whether such violation be continuous or intermittent, shall be construed as a separate and succeeding offense. The superior court, on petition of any person authorized by this section to enforce emergency orders, shall have jurisdiction in equity to enforce compliance with such emergency orders.

Any aggrieved person may appeal to the commissioner or his designee for relief from the continuance of an order. If the commissioner or his designee finds that the continuance of any order in whole or in part is unreasonable or unnecessary in light of the then prevailing conditions of air pollution, he may terminate or modify any such order.

If such an appeal is disapproved by the commissioner or his designee, the aggrieved person shall, upon his request, be granted a public hearing on the question of relief from unreasonable restrictions and the continuance of such order by the commissioner. Such public hearing shall not be subject to the provisions of chapter thirty A but shall be held as soon as may be by said commissioner, who shall give notice of the same. If the commissioner, upon conclusion of said hearing, determines that any such order should be terminated, or modified in any way whatever, he shall enter such further order as he deems appropriate.

All powers granted to the commissioner by this section shall be in addition to and not in limitation of any powers granted him by any other provision of law.

''Air contaminant'', as used in this section, includes, but is not limited to, dust, fly ash, fume, gas, mist, odor, smoke, vapor, pollen, microorganisms, radioactive material, ionizing radiation, any combination thereof, or any decay or reaction product thereof.


text:
The One Ring Chronicles – Part Two: Where Noisome Waters Pour

Arnulf and Burin approached the large main entrance to Laketown for the first time in many months. Since they had permanently moved to the new City of Dale a few years ago they had only rarely needed to return here. Today, of all days, seemed the perfect reason to come however. Today was the first day of the great new festival to be held hear each year named Dragontide, in commemoration of the events five years past and those who lost their lives, as well as a celebration of the new age of prosperity the people of the lake and Dale were enjoying.

The pair passed through the main entrance, manned by a few more of the town guards than usual, and then through the busy tollhouse to enter the town. As they opened out onto Bridge Street Burin was quite surprised to the place heaving with people.
‘By Durin’s beard lad! Would you look at the amount of folk they’ve managed to squeeze into these streets, it’s a wonder the place hasn’t sunk!’
Arnulf couldn’t help himself from beaming with pride at the success of his hometown
‘I know, isn’t it brilliant?’ He said ‘I only hope we can see the great streets of Dale as busy as this soon!’
They continued down the main street until they reached the market pool, which was somehow even busier still, with various merchants and craftsmen from lands near and far. They spent some time wandering the stalls, taking in the sights of exotic wares and enjoying the somewhat frantic but cheerful atmosphere.

At least, that’s how Arnulf saw it. Burin however sensed that something may be wrong. There weren’t as many Dwarves in the area as he would have expected, and the few that were around seemed to be keeping to their selves, or having hushed conversations amongst themselves. As Arnulf was occupied talking to one of the merchants, he decided to go over to a couple of Dwarves and see what the issue was. It’s never very unusual for Dwarves to be acting in this sort of manner, but clearly something was wrong, and Burin found that his hunch was correct as he was told that two important Dwarven emissaries who had been sent west across the forest ahead of the festival had still not returned, and Glóin was in Laketown seeking help finding them.

Burin knew that Arnulf would want to hear of this, so as they exited the market area and moved into a street where it was easier to talk without the din of the crowds, he told him of the problem.
‘Now I know we aren’t exactly here to become part of a search party or anything, but-‘
‘No no Burin’ Arnulf interrupted ‘of course we should go to Glóin and offer our help, it’s not as if we were planning on taking part in the wreath shoot contest. And after all, this festival is meant to celebrate the prosperity that the people of this land have found by working together once again, what hypocrisy would it be if those of us who can help our neighbours did nothing at a time like this?’
‘You know what Arnulf? I couldn’t have said it better myself, but one day I can see that eagerness to help getting you, and therefore me in trouble. Ah well, come we should find Glóin in his house by the town hall’ Burin said as he continued walking.

They made their way towards the centre of the town where the town hall and Glóin’s own mansion stood. Glóin usually stayed in Laketown for several weeks out of the year to act as an envoy in Esgaroth for the King under the Mountain, which was why he had his own residence there. It took them some time to get through the crowds, but they eventually arrived at Glóin’s front door.
‘Yes sirs, how can I be of service to ye?’ a Dwarf guard, casually leaning on his axe, asked as they approached. Burin introduced himself and Arnulf and said that they were here to help with the current situation.
‘Ah yes, right, well please go right in, Master Glóin is eager to see any helpful folk such as ye’selves, allow me’ the guard said as he pushed open one of the heavy double doors for them.

As they walked in they found themselves waiting for a short moment before they were then led into Glóin’s study, with the Dwarf himself sitting at his desk with a worried but determined expression across his face. Wiping ink from his fingers with barely contained impatience, staining the white trimming of his robe that matched the hue of the two points of his forked beard, he welcomed the pair to his hall. Speaking mostly at Burin, he exchanged greetings and started to explain
‘I’m sure you can understand that we want to keep this situation fairly quiet, mostly due to the worry it would cause amongst the people here to celebrate. The last thing we want is to bring down the mood at such a time. However, something must be done, and I’m thankful that a few such as yourselves have offered to help’ As he spoke he started to draw what looked like part of a map on a small piece of parchment.
‘Now, the details. My cousin Balin son of Fundin has left the Lonely Mountain with a companion. He was meant to personally deliver a letter, a formal invitation from King Dáin Ironfoot to the Lord of the Eagles for the coming Gathering of Five Armies, an important meeting to be held soon, he was also meant to spread the word to others of the festival of Dragontide here. He planned to go south along the Running River, to investigate the conditions of the Old Forest Road and possibly traverse it, now that the threat of Goblins has been greatly reduced. I don’t know what happened, but unfortunately the possibilities are many in these days of doubt… if the perils of Wilderland were not enough, there are always the suspicious dwellers of the Woodland Realm to consider. They are sworn enemies of the Shadow, but unfortunately they don’t love Dwarves and watch their land jealously. I hope my concerns are ill-placed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Balin had found himself again a guest of the Elvenking’s celebrated hospitality…’
Burin could see the great worry on the older Dwarf’s face at this moment, despite him trying to hide his profound concern, and his experience told him that something more was not being said, perhaps this unnamed companion was someone closer to Glóin than his cousin. His older brother Óin perhaps?
‘Not only do I intend to offer a princely reward to whoever finds and returns these missing persons, but you would also have my gratitude and the respect of King Dáin himself’ Glóin carried on. ‘Now, seeing as you two have come forward and generously offered your help, I gratefully accept and pronounce that you are officially tasked with the rescue of these two missing Dwarves’ He then handed over the small parchment ‘Here is a map showing their planned route through the lands south of Esgaroth. Now, if you could wait a moment while we organise you and others who have volunteered in the search into groups to go out as soon as possible, thank you’.
They both bowed formally and exchanged parting words with the Dwarf before leaving the room to wait outside.
‘I wonder who else has volunteered to help? Perhaps we’ll know them’ Arnulf said as they began to wait.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
Monday, April 29, 2013

India Is Really Unique - Here Is A Temple For People To Help Settle Down Abroad!

Hawai jahaaz Gurudwara (Airplane Temple, Daoba, Punjab). I wonder why the two peacocks are there on both sides of the plane! Some reason should be there!

I came across this news now...this seems to be a very old temple, but had not heard about this until now!

Yes, I know that 90% of the youngsters nowadays want to go abroad for studies first and settle down there later! My two sons had gone abroad, one is settled down there and one has come back.  Most of the children feel that the job satisfaction is a rare thing here.  But I see that many youngsters are getting good jobs here nowadays and love to be with friends and relatives living near to their family and so come back home. Though this fraction is not much, yet! Mostly girls love to stay/come back here in many cases, to be near their family.  Some girls who have not tasted the difficulties of running a home there without domestic help etc., which we are not used to, from childhood, still dream of 'living abroad'.   I have met some people who had lived there in the US and the UK, come back with families in a group, after some years, stay in an area together, make themselves comfortable with all the facilities they had over there plus the domestic helps and live happily.  Their friendships continue here too.  They get jobs in good companies here with their experience, some continue to work for the same companies here and seems to be happy, living here now.  The grown up children take some time to settle down though! Some families feel that living abroad is best since the nagging problems from relatives will be less! They can tolerate them once in two, three years for a month or so!

I have read that mostly the Punjabis and Gujarathis dream of going to the US and Europe in our country than the youngsters of other States.  I remember my son's school principal saying that a huge group of their school students are in California, for many decades now! They never feel that they are out of India, she said!  My son seems to be happy, living there!

Now, let me come to the topic of this post now!  This Hawaai Jahaaz Gurudwara, in Punjab, is famous for devotees visiting them to pray for their dream of settling down abroad!  We have got temples here for every wish...whether it is for getting good marks in school/colleges, for getting good life partner, for any ailments, for having a child (sometimes male child!), for building a small or dream house, for getting good jobs, etc. etc.  Once we get our wishes to our satisfaction, we go to the concerned temple and offer money or do mundan, etc.  But, this temple is unique! Here, people donate small planes and pray that they should fly abroad soon...get visa without problem, mainly!

This Sikh temple for Baba Nihal Singh is a very old temple/gurudwara and this tradition is followed by many for many years now.  This village, Daoba's families have many youngsters living abroad and this makes people believe in this tradition!

Here is the excerpt from the article:

The gurudwara is most famous among Punjabi youths, who are anxious to immigrate to places like the UK, United States, and Canada, and believe that a prayer can help them significantly speed up their visa and other procedures. Satwinder Singh, a 21-year-old college graduate from a nearby village, says, “I have just put in my application for a visa to go to the UK and am here to ensure my passage by making an offering of an aeroplane.” Surinder Kaur, another devotee, says, “My son was trying hard to go to Canada but was denied a visa. A friend suggested we offer the replica of an aeroplane at the gurudwara and it worked and he is now in Toronto.” So popular has this temple become that it is referred to as the “Hawai Jahaz Gurudwara” (Airplane temple). Several hundreds of airplane models are offered here and the temple often runs out of space to house them all. The shrine management has now come up with the solution of distributing the toys to children. “At least the children can play with them. We cannot stop people from offering them. In the end what matters is the faith with which you pray,”says head priest Bhai Manjit Singh.

I loved the last line in this article: No wonder this temple is believed to possess a power even greater than that of  immigration officials.

Don't you think that our country is really unique?!

Picture and article courtesy HERE

EDITED TO ADD ON 30.4.13: My blogger friend Mr.SG has given information about a  VISA temple near Hyderabad, in the comment section! Here is the link of the visa temple! This temple has no hundi, doesn't accept money or no VIP treatments for any visitor.  This is unique, indeed!

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Holidays, Holidays, Holidays...

I am hearing for the past half an hour, a small girl crying 'please pa, please pa...' from an apartment at the back of our house.  Both of us, I and my husband, are feeling restless and feel like going and telling the parents of the girl not to punish her like this...the girl is left at their balcony and the door is closed. She must be around 7 or 8 years old. I don't hear anyother child's sound in their house.  The girl must be bored and so, must have done something to seek attention.

Another next door neighbour's children are playing the whole day from morning to night.  Their relative's children must have come and sometimes they fight with each other and the elders shout back at them.  We just laugh and enjoy the sound because our house was like this when my children were small, during the school holidays!

My children used to play carrom the whole day and we too were joining them and then cards! Sometimes scrabble! Yes, my nieces used to come and stay with us during most of the holidays.  I used to cook the whole day.  Take them for a movie, which was a must during the holidays.  One day to the beach, here in Chennai! Then go to other relatives' houses together and enjoy! My main job was cooking...paav bhaaji, paani poori (I used to make even the poories at home!), samosas, different types of parathas, cakes, ice creams etc.  God, they used to eat so much!

When we were in Hosur, we used to have cricket matches in our colony playgrounds, during holidays, between teams from other colonies.  Elders' match and youngsters' match! It was fun! My younger son was always in the playground...I had to search for him in three playgrounds inside our colony after 6.30 p.m., most of the days! I had to push my elder son out to play! Contrast! Even if he played, it was not an active game.   One day, he came from school and said that he played football match in his school.  My husband asked him 'in which place'...he said 'I was a Goalie'! My husband started laughing! Our current Goalie (cat) was like him when she was small! Other kittens used to play actively when she was a kitten and this one used to watch them, lazily! So, she was named 'Goalie'!

When the children were in school, I used to take them to Udupi, to my native place, during annual holidays.  Unlike now, they used to love going to the Krishna temple, pull the temple car etc. and enjoyed doing it! One of my aunt lived in a village and so the children enjoyed roaming the fields, admiring the vegetable garden etc.

Once they grew up i.e. when they reached 15-16, they started feeling bored with all these routines.  They started sitting with a book or sometimes go out to friends' houses.  Well, they were reading books earlier too, but slowly, the serious reading time went up!

The next stage was dieting! They were refusing to eat oily foods...the outdoor games had nearly stopped.  The younger son, esp. used to play in the school and outside too, until then.  T.V. watching started consuming more time! They were not watching serials though...mostly cartoons or English movies...light movies.  The serious movies came later!

I see many of the parents send their children to some sort of summer camps now during holidays.  During school days, they are sent to some tuition classes.  Some lucky ones who enjoy games, are sent to table tennis or badminton classes. Otherwise, tuition, home work, other outdoor recreation. I feel sorry for them.  Going to other relatives' houses are also becoming less and less.  Everybody is busy.  No time to entertain others' children.  So the 'one child' homes mostly go out to some hill station or something for a week or so and the holidays are over. We can't blame them too.

Now, my sons and most of the children in our family (nieces etc.), are grown up and married...we miss those 'busy' days.  Those days will never come again.  So, enjoy the company of children as much as possible!  We can also remember those happy days and they too will never forget them when they grow older!

Edited to add (21.4.13): I forgot to add the story telling session in our house! My mother and sister in law were very good story tellers! I am not! When they told stories to the sons, nieces, all of us elders used to sit around and enjoy the stories even though we heard them again and again! Mine was not a joint family but everyone came and stayed in our house often.  My in-laws were dead before my marriage.  Now, one of my niece says that because I, her maami, entertained her during the school holidays, she is planning to entertain her nieces and nephews also like me.  She too sends her daughter to her sis in law's house during holidays at least for a couple of days.  She says that her daughter will learn to mingle with other children in this way.  When there were more children, all of them were sleeping in the hall on just plain mats with some bed sheets.  At their own homes they will have rooms and beds.  I felt the children enjoyed chatting till late at nights, playing word games, names of capitals etc. at night.  Even now, my nieces who are grown ups, come to stay with me for at least one night, just for old time's sake.  I am so happy about it.  Now to my son's favourite song:

Picture courtesy: Google

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Iniya Tamizh Puththaandu Nalvaazhththukkal! Ugaadi Habbada Shubhaashayagalu!

.Happy Tamizh New Year!

Happy Ugaadi!

Vishu Aashamsagal!

Happy Baisaakhi!

Shubho Nobo Borsha!

To all my friends and relatives, here!
God bless us all!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Pinjar (2003)...A 'Don't Miss' Movie!

Chandra Prakash Dwivedi's movie, Pinjar !
I wanted to watch this movie, 'Pinjar' which means, skeleton,  for a long time and at last did it last Sunday.  I had heard/read a lot about it and it was worth watching this movie at a stretch at home without getting up and going inside! It was so engrossing that nobody dared disturb me!

Do you remember the famous Doordarshan serial, 'Chanakya'? The director and the actor who acted as Chanakya, Dr.Chandra Prakash Dwivedi has directed this movie. This is his debut movie.  The story, is based on a novel, written originally by the famous award winning Punjabi author Amrita Pritam, revolves around the Hindu, Muslim families during partition.

When the movie started from the year, '1946', I knew, it is going to be a very serious movie.  I hadn't read the complete review earlier.  The movie starts with Kulbhushan Karbanda (what a booming voice he has got!), a rich Hindu man  in Amritsar, who is planning to fix his daughter, Paro's marriage and goes to his village in Western Amritsar with his family. 'Rangeela' fame, Urmila Matondkar, is the daughter...she looks beautiful and has acted quite well in this movie! I had admired her in 'Banaras' also. The partition disturbance had started just then.  But the family is happy.  His one son, Trilok (Priyanshu Chatterjee),  was involved in Congress activities.  He stays back and promises to join the wedding activities later.  At the village, the wedding is fixed  with a local rich man, Alok Nath's son, Ramachandra (Sanjay Suri) and he insists on 'give & take' marriage, i.e. he had a daughter whom he wanted to marry to Kulbushan's son and his son would marry Kulbhooshan's daughter!  It was agreed. A grand Punjabi wedding song is shown here! Punjabi songs are colourful and have got good rhythm, so they become famous easily!

The actual story starts now.  Paro has got a sister and both the girls roam in the fields and suddenly a man on a horse chases her and abducts her.  He is a muslim, Rashid is his name and his family had an  old revenge with Kulbhushan's family.  This man is the hero of the movie and Manoj Bajpai has acted very well in this role. Very controlled acting.  He keeps her in an old village house, which looks very primitive. She keeps on crying and after some days, she runs away and goes to her father's place and to her horror, her father refuses to take her in, since she is tainted now and tells her that her sister also will not get a groom if people come to know about her.  She returns and finds Manoj Bajpai waiting for her on the way.  They show him repenting for his act and starts loving her.

Kulbhooshan discusses the truth with Alok nath and Alok nath agrees to marry nephew to Kulbhooshan's second daughter, since Alok's son, Ramchandra, refuses to marry the sister. He had seen Paro once and so he refuses to marry her sister.  Ramachandra's sister is married to Alok nath's son, who reluctantly agrees but stays aloof because of the grief of losing his sister and not finding her.

Paro reluctantly settles down with the muslim family  and then the India-Pakistan partition problem starts.  Kulbhooshan's (his screen name Mohanlal has not registered in my mind!) family whose village is in Pakistan, starts their return journey to India.  Like we know, they go through lots of problems.  Women are abducted and raped by muslims and as per the story, Alok Nath's daughter, Kulbhooshan's daughter in law, who came home for delivery, is abducted and raped by many people.  Kulbhooshan's son, Kirti who came for the wedding starts looking for Paro and comes to know about Rashid and sets his field in fire.  Rashid objects his family who wanted to attack Kulbhooshan's family for this, saying that any brother would do this for the people who hurt his sister.  They show Paro still thinking of her home and Ramchandra...but slowly softening towards Rashid.

Now, the story goes a bit 'filmy' way.  Still, the movie was captivating for a long time.  The songs are good, though one song where Sanjay Suri sings, sitting under a tree, during partition procession is a bit irritating, knowing the situation! Dwivedi should have avoided this or it should have been in the background!

Watch some songs from this movie now:

The above song sounds clearer here, in   but no video! This song is originally from Jagjith Singh's album, 'Marasim'.  Gulzar is the lyricist.  He is the lyricist for all the lovely songs in this movie. Read what he says about Jagjith Singh here.  His voice suits the situation very well.  A great singer, but now, he is no more.

This song is sung by another famous singer, Roop Kumar Rathod and the music director of this movie, Uttam Singh .  He did the music for the famous 'Dil to paagal hai'.  Sounds very patriotic.

Well...this is a 'different' type of movie and you can watch it without getting bored.  Good acting by all of them is a plus point!

This film won the award for 'Best feature film' on National Integration, 'Best Art direction' award for Munish Sappal and 'Best actor' award for Manoj Bajpai.

Picture Courtesy: Wikipedia

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Agra ( 3 ) ants ( 1 ) Arya Samaj wedding ( 1 ) Aurangabad ( 1 ) awards ( 3 ) Badami cave temples ( 4 ) balika vadhu ( 4 ) Bhimsen Joshi ( 1 ) birds and butterflies ( 27 ) Book Review ( 2 ) Books ( 5 ) Chennairain ( 1 ) children ( 2 ) Chutney ( 1 ) Cinderella Man ( 1 ) cinema ( 15 ) common wealth games ( 1 ) concerts ( 5 ) Corporation Schools ( 1 ) cricket ( 2 ) Dharamshala ( 3 ) dogs ( 5 ) Doordarshan ( 9 ) down memory lane ( 5 ) Education ( 15 ) English Movie Review ( 15 ) Environment ( 52 ) Festivals ( 20 ) Firaaq (2008) ( 1 ) Fitness ( 1 ) Forts ( 3 ) Foto Friday ( 18 ) Gafla ( 1 ) General ( 42 ) Health ( 7 ) Hindi film songs ( 3 ) Hindi Movie Review ( 24 ) Humour ( 6 ) Jagjit Singh ( 4 ) Kalakshetra ( 1 ) Kamal Haasan ( 2 ) kanjira ( 1 ) Karsh Kale ( 1 ) kaun banega superstar ( 3 ) kbc ( 2 ) Kew Gardens ( 2 ) Kittens ( 10 ) Kurnool ( 4 ) kya aap paanchvi paas se tez hain? ( 1 ) language ( 1 ) London ( 5 ) Mahabaleshwar tour ( 5 ) movie review ( 7 ) Mumbai Meri Jaan ( 1 ) music ( 56 ) my garden ( 17 ) Nature ( 19 ) New year ( 3 ) onion ( 1 ) patriotism ( 19 ) pattadha kallu ( 1 ) People whom I admire ( 60 ) Personal experience ( 2 ) pets ( 19 ) politics ( 20 ) Portugese anchor ( 1 ) Pt.Chaurasia ( 1 ) radio ( 4 ) rantings ( 3 ) reality shows ( 2 ) recognition ( 2 ) religion ( 3 ) s ( 1 ) Sangeeth Saritha ( 5 ) saregama 1998 mega final ( 3 ) saregama 1999 finals ( 1 ) saregamapa 2010 ( 1 ) showcaves ( 1 ) Sonu Nigam ( 5 ) sound of music ( 3 ) sparrows ( 3 ) Sports ( 6 ) Srilanka tour ( 4 ) sunrise ( 6 ) superstitions ( 2 ) Tagged ( 11 ) Tamil movie Review ( 8 ) Temples ( 22 ) Tendulkar ( 3 ) The King's Speech ( 1 ) The Taj ( 1 ) thief ( 1 ) Tirupati ( 3 ) tour ( 59 ) tours ( 2 ) Travel ( 25 ) TV serial review ( 8 ) Ulagath Tamizh Semmozhi Maanaadu ( 1 ) unbelievable news ( 2 ) US tour ( 4 ) Ustaad Zakir Hussain ( 1 ) Vaalpaarai ( 3 ) vedanthangal ( 3 ) voh kaagaz ki kashti ( 75 ) wordless wednesday ( 38 ) yoga ( 2 )