Chitchat and the occasional in-depth analysis about fiber, knitting, spinning, crochet, cooking, feminism, self-image, and a modicum of personal blathering.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Happier Days

05302011_81 by mensabuttercup
05302011_81, a photo by mensabuttercup on Flickr.

I miss this little girl so much. I miss her even though I know she's way bigger than this now. I miss her even though she's all grown up with her own concerns and her own problems to solve and her own life to live. I'm beginning to lose hope that we'll ever be part of each others' lives again. I want to tell her it's all okay, that I don't want there to be this space between us any more, that whatever it is, we'll work it out.

I just miss her and want to help her, or just to talk to her. Or just to give her a hug, if she needs one.

Monday, May 09, 2011

Speaking up

This commercial airing on Versus during the Stanley Cup Playoffs makes me feel sick to my stomach.

http://www.commercialpedia.com/2011/04/hornitos-tequila-brotherly-love.html

Essentially, the twin brother is all set to rape his brother's girlfriend. This is seen as a good thing.

I sent the following to Sauza on their "contact us" link.
http://dev.wearepixel.com/sauzatequila/contact.html

"Your advertisement for Hornitos tequila condoning rape (the twin brothers ad) has convinced me that I will never buy another product manufactured by Sauza. It's a shame, because you all make some very good tequila, but the implication that this man can rape his brother's girlfriend (she can't consent, because she thinks he is someone else, lack of consent equals rape) is so incredibly repellent that you'll never get another dime from me. Shame on you for contributing to rape culture in such a disgusting way."


(Sauza is the parent company of Hornitos, the Hornitos website has a contact us link but when you click it, nothing happens.)

Please speak up against this kind of "edgy" advertising. We can end rape culture, but it takes all of us to do it. Let companies know this sort of thing will not be tolerated.

Monday, May 02, 2011

Sharing the goodness

I've been using groupon a bit lately, it's a good way to save money and still get to go out for dinner and stuff, which we've had to curtail recently. This gets us the occasional cheap date. I have a couple for gateway clipper cruises sitting in my groupon account waiting for good weather and time, and I've got one for coffee or tea waiting for me to get a chance to the appropriate store. I nice thing about it is they're usually good for six months or so. You can stockpile a few and when you feel like a treat, go to your groupon account and there they are. Increasingly, merchants are letting you use them via your smartphone, which is a cool use of tech, too.

I had a bad experience with one merchant, out of state, obviously not considering the number of people who would buy the deal, which was $35 for $70 worth of organic meat. I placed an order for over $150 worth of food. It took forever to get the order, more than six weeks, and when it arrived, it was incomplete. They did not communicate well and some of the staff were rude and unhelpful. I called Groupon today and they immediately refunded my original purchase price of $35 with no argument whatsoever. It was nice to be able to walk away from the experience with at least some satisfaction. So I recommend them. If you want to try Groupon, and want to help me out too, I get a ten dollar credit if you buy one using this link,

http://www.groupon.com/r/uu22619728

Easter came and went. Younger daughter came into town for the weekend, bringing her classroom guinea pig, Miss Piggy.

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Very cute critter. I loved her little mohawk, and she made the cutest noises.

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They went back to Tennessee way too fast.

Not much else going on. I spun all the yarn for the knitalong I mentioned previously, probably 1400 yards or so of fingering weight in a lovely variable mauve color. My "plying wheel", my Babe fiberstarter, broke a treadle, so I had to go through all kinds of nonsense getting the yarn plied as I only have three bobbins for the Kromski wheel and they were all taken up with singles. Ended up making a HUGE plying ball and went from there. Not ideal, but at least it's done.

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Bob is working late today and tomorrow so I'm kinda on my own here for a bit. Miss Lily and I are chilling out together and watching TV. I hurt my hands spinning too much over the weekend so I'm not really doing much, a little knitting, some laundry, making ham and bean soup. A good way to spend Monday.

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