05.31.09
Posted in Uncategorized, humor at 10:54 pm by Administrator
I’m currently reading a book by Chinua Achebe called, Things Fall Apart. The story is situated in an Ibo village in Nigeria. The main character is a man by the name of Okonkwo. A lot of the book so far shows a bit about their culture and how the villagers interact with each other from day to day. The later half of the book will deal with the arrival of European missionaries and how the two cultures clash. I haven’t gotten to that part yet, but I just read one of their “tales,” which I thought was cute and made me laugh, especially since I didn’t see the end coming. I love to hear folk stories, and this one was quite different from any that I’ve heard so far, so I thought I would share it. In this book, Okonkwo has three wives. In the evening they tell stories to their children, each mother takes turns. This night the second wife, Ekwefi, tells a story. . .
“Once upon a time,” she began, “all the birds were invited to a feast in the sky. They were very happy and began to prepare themselves for the great day. They painted their bodies with red cam wood and drew beautiful patterns on them with uli.
“Tortoise saw all these preparations and soon discovered what it all meant. Nothing that happened in the world of the animals ever escaped his notice, he was full of cunning. As soon as he heard of the great feast in the sky his throat began to itch at the very thought. There was a famine in those days and Tortoise had not eaten a good meal for two moons. His body rattled like a piece of dry stick in his empty shell. So he began to plan how he would go to the sky.”
“But he had no wings,” said Ezinma.
“Be patient, ” replied her mother. “That is the story. Tortoise had no wings, but he went to the birds and asked to be allowed to go with them.
“‘We know you too well,’ said the birds when they had heard him. ‘You are full of cunning and you are ungrateful. If we allow you to come with us you will soon begin your mischief.’
“‘You do not know me,’ said Tortoise, ‘I am a changed man. I have learned that a man who makes trouble for others is also making it for himself.’
“Tortoise had a sweet tongue, and within a short time all the birds agreed that he was a changed man, and they each gave him a feather, with which he made two wings.
“At last the great day came and Tortoise was the first to arrive at the meeting place. When all the birds had gathered together, they set off in a body. Tortoise was very happy and voluble as he flew among the birds, and he was soon chosen as the man to speak for the part because he was a great orator.
“There is one important thing which we must not forget,’ he said as they flew on their way. ‘When people are invited to a great feast like this, they take new names for the occasion. Our hosts in the sky will expect us to honor this age-old custom.’
“None of the birds had heard of this custom but they knew that Tortoise, in spite of his failings in other directions, was a widely traveled man who knew the customs of different peoples. And so they each took a new name. When they had all taken, Tortoise also took one. He was to be called All of you.
“At last the party arrived in the sky and their hosts were very happy to see them. Tortoise stood up in his many-colored plumage and thanked them for their invitation. His speech was so eloquent that all the birds were glad they had brought him, and nodded their heads in approval of all he said. Their hosts took him as the king of the birds, especially as he looked somewhat different from the others.
“After kola nuts had been presented and eaten, the people of the sky set before their guests the most delectable dishes Tortoise had even seen or dreamed of. The soup was brought out hot from the fire and in the very pot in which it had been cooked. It was full of meat and fish. Tortoise began to sniff aloud. There was pounded yam and also yam pottage cooked with palm-oil and fresh fish. There were also pots of palm-wine. When everything had been set before the guests, one of the people of the sky came forward and tasted a little from each pot. He then invited the birds to eat. But Tortoise jumped to his feet and asked; ‘For whom have you prepared this feast?’
“‘For all of you,’Replied the man.
“Tortoise turned to the birds and said; ‘You remember that my name is All of you. The custom here is to serve the spokesman first and the others later. They will serve you when I have eaten.’
“He began to eat and the birds grumbled angrily. The people of the sky thought it must be their custom to leave all the food for their king. And so Tortoise ate the best part of the food and then drank two pots of palm-wine, so that he was full of food and drink and his body filled out in his shell.
“The birds gather round to eat what was left and to peck at the bones he had thrown all about the floor. Some of them were too angry to eat. They chose to fly home on an empty stomach. But before they left each took back the feather he had lent to Tortoise. And there he stood in his hard shell full of food and wine but without any wings to fly home. He asked the birds to take a message for his wife, but they all refused. In the end Parrot, who had felt more angry than the others, suddenly changed his mind and agreed to take the message.
“Tell my wife,’ said Tortoise, ‘to bring out all the soft things in my house and cover the compound with them so that I can jump down from the sky without very great danger.’
“Parrot promised to deliver the message, and then flew away. But when he reached Tortoise’s house he told his wife to bring out all the hard things in the house. And so she brought out her husband’s hoes, machetes, spears, guns and even his cannon. Tortoise looked down from the sky and saw his wife brings things out, but it was too far to see what they were. When all seemed ready he let himself go. He fell and fell and fell until he began to fear that he would never stop falling. And then like the sound of his cannon he crashed on the compound.”
“Did he die?” asked Ezinma.
“No,” replied Ekwefi. “His shell broke into pieces. But there was a great medicine man in the neighborhood. Tortoise’s wife sent for him and he gathered all the bits of shell and stuck them together. That is why Tortoise’s shell is not smooth.”
Ha ha! I just love that story. . . Again, that’s a story told in the book, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Speaking of falling, heheh. I came across an old picture of Brian that gave me a chuckle. This is his rendition of how he would react if he fell on some cactus, ta ha!
This was actually taken around 2004 at the LA Arboretum. After reading the news today that since California has such a huge deficit, many of our national parks might close after Labor Day. . . Wah. Makes me want to run out and visit them again before they close! Yikes!
Well, back to reading. . .
Marlakins
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05.30.09
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Uncategorized at 10:13 am by Administrator
I have a quiet moment to continue commenting on Frank Schaeffer’s book, Crazy for God, How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of it Back. I doubt I’ll be able to comment on everything I want to say in this post, but I’ll chip away at it this morning, and maybe make a continuation later. The reason I feel I have so much to comment on this book is because I find that it deals with a lot of things that I’ve dealt with in the past and currently. Not that I grew up with very religious parents like Frank, or that I was in any sort of lime-light, but rather I notice a lot of the hypocracy in people in general and particularly how that influences Christians and how we view the world, including the Christian world view vs the secular world view. Frank writes about the snobbishness of Christians as well as their prudishness, and then even the in-fighting amongst ourselves among other things. There is much to say.
While I don’t mean it to be condemning, per say, Frank does point out some truths about a section of the Christian community. And again, while I do agree with some of the things Frank points out (like the craziness of the mega evangelical personalities and their followers), there are other things he mentions that I wish he explained more fully because it would have been nice to have more details. For instance, Frank describes, on page 391, Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family as “a power-crazed political manipulator cynically abusing his followers.” Wow. Ouch. I will admit that I have never gotten too involved with any high-powered evangelical. I have seen a few and have followed “some” of them such as reading some of Dobson’s writings and listening to some of his broadcasts. I used to be on their mailing list and received their newsletters. But, never have I gotten fanatical about any of them as I knew they were all just mere men just like the rest of us. However, amongst many of the evangelicals, I did hold Dobson as one of the more sane ones with a lot of practical sense. So reading Frank’s assessment of him surprised me. However, upon more reflection, I do recall this latest Presidential election in 2008, where I was sorely disappointed in Dobson, and quite frankly surprised. For Dobson to so staunchly oppose McCain, then turn on a dime once Palin jumped on board really sent up a red flag for me. I had not expected Dobson to be so wishy washy and to so easily ignore sound Biblical doctrine like women not leading men, and that women should put their families first before career (Palin’s unwed pregnant teenaged daughter was a glaring indication that she was not supervising her children well enough, and certainly becoming Vice President would not help it any especially with a “new” down-syndromed child in the picture), etc. What I came to realize was that Dobson wasn’t as admirable as I had originally thought. Previously I thought Dobson was doing a good job of voicing out the importance of the family, but never realized that he was “political.” Why I missed that, I don’t know, but the recent Presidential elections did prove that out. Apparently, Frank knew this many years ago as he apparently felt this way about Dobson about 20 years ago while helping to raise funds on the 700 Club. I must not have been paying close enough attention to Dobson in those past years, but it came glaring out in 2008 when he used his religious weight and followers to get into the political arena. Very disappointing, but just another eye-opener for me not to put my trust in man.
The other high-powered evangelicals that Frank names, I’ve heard of, but never paid much attention to primarily because when I was a kid, I remembered the likes of Oral Roberts and Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and others. They looked and sounded like a bunch of con-artists. I wasn’t even “born-again” at that time because I don’t think I even knew what that was, but could see how phony they were, nonetheless. But once I did become a born-again Christian and started to actually read the Bible, I found that Jesus was much different than any of those high-powered evangelicals. Jesus’s message was much different. After I became a born again Christian, I found people like Henry Morris of Institute for Creation Research, Zane Hodges of Dallas Theological Seminary, Francis Schaeffer founder of L’Abri, James Dobson founder of Focus on the Family, and others. These were the people who I thought revered the Bible and Jesus’s teaching. As I mentioned above, I was recently disappointed by Dobson, and then that disappointment was confirmed by Frank’s assessment of him in Crazy for God.* Then in the same book, I find that Francis Schaeffer, the other person I thought highly of, also had significant shortcomings. Upon more reflection, I can see the error, now. While Francis’s message that God could be explained with reason using our intellect, there is much more to following God than using and displaying wisdom. Sure the Bible strongly encourages wisdom. Wisdom is said to be more valuable that gold and silver, but when I consider it, Solomon was the wisest man ever to live, yet he fell away from God. And when I consider what the Bible tells us what the fruit of the spirit is, I notice that wisdom is not mentioned as one of them. . . the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (Gal 5:22-23). There is a purpose for everything, but caution must be taken to apply things appropriately. While Francis was quite wise (I still think he was quite genius in his writings regarding the disparity of man without God, his conviction of the inerrancy of the Bible, and his appreciation for the arts, etc.), his son Frank reveals that he was given to anger and his appreciation of the intellect and the arts made him somewhat “snobbish.” And most of all, seeing how disfunctional Francis’s own family was, shows me that perhaps all those “wise” revelations Francis had regarding man and philosophy and arts was given more attention than was merited. And as Frank points out, moving into the political arena just really futher messed everything up by corrupting his values as “compromises” started to be part of the norm.
Okay, I should leave it here for now, but know that I still have lots more things to comment on. I did start looking for some YouTube videos of the other evangelicals to get an idea of what Frank was talking about, heheheh. I can definitely see some of what Frank describes. I also checked out another one of Frank’s books called, Portofino, ha! I’ve only started it, but have already gotten some chuckles. It’s a fictional story, but apparently it loosely portrays his family. Or as some have suggested, not so loosely portrays his family. I had no idea that his family life was so bizzare, but in all fairness, it probably isn’t really much different from any other family, both Christian and non-Christian alike. We all have our hang ups and quirkiness even if it’s not surrounded by Biblical issues.
Okay, more later. . .
Marlakins
*While I can see what Frank meant about Dobson being politically manipulating, I do take issue with Frank’s assessement that Dobson “used” the Schaeffer’s platform of protecting the unborn child as a stepping stone to gaining more power or furthering his own agenda/s. I think Dobson could have truly believed in fighting for the anti-abortion cause, and sure he may have gained momentum while on the anti-abortion platform, that doesn’t mean that he can’t have other issues he’s passionate about. Abortion could have been only “one” interest for Dobson just like abortion was only one interest for Francis. There are many other issues, and there’s nothing wrong with supporting multiple issues. Who says that we can only support one issue at a time? So I’m not sure I get why Frank seems to be sore that Dobson got on the anti-abortion issues while also raising other family issues. Perhaps that’s where I would have appreciated more explanation.
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05.28.09
Posted in Historical Trivia, Uncategorized, museums at 10:14 pm by Administrator
A couple weeks ago was MOTA Day (museums of the arroyo day 2009). MOTA consists of The Gamble House, Heritage Square Museum, The Los Angeles Police Historical Museum, Lummis Home and Garden, Pasadena Museum of History,and Autry’s Southwest Museum of the American Indian. My boys and I took advantage of that day and jumped in the bat mobile to finally go back and visit the Southwest Museum. For anyone who might be following along with this blog may remember we tried to visit this museum before, but it was closed. However, I did manage to post our experience of that day, which can be read here. This time, the Southwest Museum was not closed. BUT, when we got there, this is what we found. . .
And this. . .
Eh, what the. . . where’s the. . . what’s going on? Since the museum was open this time, we poked around a bit to see if there was anything to see anywhere. Nada, zip. Then we saw the sign that there was to be a tour of the Caracol Tower. Oh. . . what’s that? Let’s join the tour. . .
Okay, for an empty museum, it did turn out to be informative anyway. What our guide explained to us was that the museum was damaged in the Northridge earthquake, so had to be closed down. “But that was about 15 years ago!,” I interjected. “Yes,” replied our tour guide. The museum consisted of over 250,000 artifacts, which had to be removed one by one before any repair would could commence. Just moving the artifacts alone took about four “years!” “So, when will the museum be open so that we can see the displays?,” I asked. “Oh, about four or five more years from now. . .” Ack! What the. . .where’s the. . . what’s going on? LOL Well, yes, apparently the repair work is now almost finished. It’s only a matter of weeks, now, but remember, it took them about four years to take all the artifacts/displays out. So it only makes sense that it will now take another four years to put them all back in! What a bummer. . . BUT all is not lost. Apparently, the Southwest Museum has provided an online viewing of their artifacts which can be viewed from this link.
Another nice thing about visiting this empty museum was that the guide was informative. We learned that the Southwest Museum was the first museum in Los Angeles. It was founded by Charles Lummis in 1907. Who’s Charles Lummis? Well, he’s the handsome guy featured in black and white. . .
I’ll write more about Charles Lummis in another post. We did manage to visit the lummis House, too, but didn’t have enough time to visit the other museums. We had actually visited Heritage Square a while back during it’s open hours, but I still haven’t gotten around to uploading those pics and writing about it. Anyway, back to the Southwest Museum.
The architectural design of the museum replicated the old mission styles. Around 1895 Charles Lummis founded the Landmark Club which helped to revive the old adobe and mission style buildings.
While there were no artifacts to see, we at least were given a tour up their Caracol Tower. Evidently, it’s called the caracol tower because of the snail spiral the tower makes. Here’s a view looking down from midway up the tower.
Again at the top, the room was empty. There were scaffolding around the windows and the view looked like this from one of the windows.
Since there wasn’t much more to see up there, we headed back down and hopped back into the bat mobile and visited Charles Lummis’s house. I’ll post a little more on that on another post. So, just a reminder for anyone thinking of visiting the Southwest Museum, . . there aren’t any artifacts on display. . . There won’t be for another four or five years from now. Just thought I’d give you the heads up. . .
Marlakins
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05.27.09
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Uncategorized at 8:25 pm by Administrator
I know I’m a tad late on this, but still wanted to post the verdict of the attempt to overturn Prop 8 here in California. The verdict actually came out yesterday, and I’m only able to update now. For those who may not know what Prop 8 was, it was a proposition that would require the state of California to recognize that marriage was only between a man and a woman. The effect of that would mean that gay marriages here in California would no longer be legal or valid. Along with the Presidential election in 2008, Californians voted on Prop 8, yes or no, to overturn gay marriages here. Well it passed in November, which had the gay community up in arms. They fought it even though it was clearly voted in by the majority. Yesterday the judge deemed that Prop 8 was legal, so now gay marriages are no longer legal or valid here in California. I’m sure many people know that California is known to be quite liberal, so this is a big surprise as well as a wake-up call that just because some people are liberal in some ways that doesn’t mean that they don’t have any Biblical values.
Last year in 2008, gay marriages became legal for about 5 months until it was voted out. I think about 18,000 gay marriages took place then. The recent ruling determined that those 18,000 marriages that took place during the window that gay marriages were legal are still considered legal and recognized by the state of California because Prop 8 did not stipulate anything about being retroactive and that there would be too much disruption to try to annul those marriages. In the meantime, and as expected, the gay community will continue to try to fight for gay marriages. The premise they seem to use is that banning gay marriages is discrimination like discriminating against color. I disagree. Being whatever color a person is is just being. Sodomy is an act, just like adultery, fornication, incest, etc. which are also technically illegal. It’s a behavior which is not the same as being born with brown or blue eyes. I have nothing against the “people,” it’s the “action” which is frowned upon.
I’ve heard that marriage is only a “word” that we should be willing to change for the sake of tolerance. But words have meanings. Marriages were not only between two people who loved each other. Marriages were often times arranged between two people who had never met. The purpose was for family lineage, and in order to perpetuate the family line, the couple had to be able to procreate. That meant that one of them had to be male and the other had to be female. This is an issue of “bloodline,” which a gay couple could never do. If they did in vitro fertilization, the egg or sperm would have to come from a third party. There is no potential for a gay couple to continue the family line without a third party and thus a break in bloodlineage. When God created Adam and Eve, He told them to be fruitful and multiply. Their marriage was thus sanctified.
So should we change the meaning of the word marriage to include same sex unions? Why? Why don’t they just use another word since it does not truly conform to what a real marriage is. Why hijack a word that already has a full meaning? I think there is an underlying purpose. I think it’s subversive to try to change the meaning of marriage to include same sex unions. Because what I think they are really trying to do is make same sex unions acceptable in the eyes of everyone else if not in the eyes God. Changing words may fool some people, but is not what makes things acceptable to God. At least I have no reason to believe that.
Then there is the argument that God made them gay. They can’t help what they are. I ask then why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? God destroyed them because He made them that way? God also destroyed many other evil people. Did God make them evil? Or did those people have the choice to be (act) evil? There are many temptations in the world. Just because we have lots of temptations doesn’t mean that it’s okay because God made me this way. Part of the fruit of the spirit is self-control. Some people are compulsive thieves, liars, cheats, adulterers, etc. Are we no longer responsible for any control? God just made us all this way so might as well let lawlessness abound?
If love is the only criteria for marriage, then is it then okay for pedophiles to marry? There are men who love kids. How about beastiality? Can people start marrying animals, too? There are men who love animals. Are there no lines for what’s appropriate?
Gay people here in California already have many rights and are already pretty well received in the community. Many hold very good jobs and are even highly respected in many circles. But somehow they want more. They seem to want to “change” “everyone’s” feelings and thoughts, not just other people’s actions. It’s like trying to force someone’s religion on you. I think if gay people were just trying to obtain rights “without” trying to manipulate other people’s view of the gay community, then they would find another word to describe their union, instead of trying to claim equality with heterosexual marriages. Because there is a difference between heterosexual marriages and gay unions just as there is definitely differences between men and women. Choosing a separate word would be more honest and “might” foster less opposition from the heterosexual crowd. I personally don’t think the Bible approves of same sex unions at all (see Romans 1:26*), but God will be the ultimate judge on that one. And certainly, I can’t force Biblical truths on people who don’t respect the Bible, anyway. It’s not my job to judge those outside of the faith. This has nothing to do with hating the “people,” but rather disapproving of the “actions,” of which there are many that are frowned upon, sodomy just being one of them. Biblically speaking, there are some actions that are just not acceptable.
Somehow I don’t think that the gay community is going to let Prop 8 continue to go unchallenged. So stay tuned to what’s next up their sleeves. We might have to wait until 2010 to see the next move.
Marlakins
*Romans 1:27-28 –”Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.”
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05.26.09
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Uncategorized at 12:10 pm by Administrator
I hope everyone had an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. I took the opportunity to catch up on the net on all the bantering regarding the water-boarding issue. There were some very insightful comments, and some “amusing” comments as well, heheheh. I also managed to finish off Frank Schaeffer’s book, Crazy for God, How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All ) of it Back. I know I don’t have a lot of time to blog at the moment, but thought I’d start commenting since I think Frank writes about so many things that I may have to stretch my comments out in a couple posts. So for now I’d say that overall, Frank’s book was easy to read, very informative, and at times, quite entertaining. My original interest in reading his book was to find out why he converted to Eastern Orthodox. Upon reading his book, I got a lot “more” than just why he may have converted, and thus why I have a lot of comments to make. I also read other people’s comments including Os Guinness’s commentary. It was interesting to read his point of view since he knew Frank and his family personally. My comments will be strictly from the view of an outsider since I really knew very little of the family. I can certainly understand a lot of what Frank wrote about because some of the issues he brings up, I could personally relate to, such as the problems within the Christian community, and particularly problems with how the Bible is interpreted. While I do agree with a lot of what Frank writes regarding the Christian community, I also think that there is a wider range of Christians that he does not acknowledge. Not all of us are nut cases as he seems to make us out to be. In that respect, I think his book Crazy for God, seems to lump us all together (for the most part) in one broad stroke.
Okay, so where to begin? Frank starts off with his childhood. And oh boy, he sure was given the appropriate name because Frank is very frank, ha! Embarrassingly so! I only hope my kids don’t write about me like this some day! Of course the Bible does tell us that one day everything in secret will be made known. It will be shouted from the roof-tops! Ack! I guess there’s no getting around that anyway, so okay, I’ll look at it as “such is life.” But back to the book. Almost from the beginning one could sense problems on the horizon. Now I don’t want to be unfairly judgmental of Frank’s parents, Francis and Edith, since after all, we all make mistakes. None of us are perfect. And even though God was the perfect father, Adam and Eve still rebelled. I wasn’t at all familiar with Edith’s writings (that was news to me, and only goes to show how little I really knew of the Schaeffers), but I was familiar with Francis’s writings, which I thought was very enlightening. So I really found Frank’s book very, very interesting and as a result gave me a need to reflect more on the true value of Francis’s writings. And to Francis and Edith’s credit, at least they were “trying” to live by their religious convictions, not just preaching it. However, from Frank’s description, I felt there was a similarity of how they lived their lives and how Gandhi lived his life in relation to the family. That is, in their family the children were second priority (in the Schaeffer family as in Gandhi’s), and as a result their family suffered. Actually, I think this is a common theme in many Christian families, particularly those in the ministry such as missionaries because so often Christian “parents” are so busy evangelizing to the world that they don’t have enough time for their own kids. As a result many missionary kids are dumped off into boarding schools while their “missionary” parents jet set off to distant lands to help the “unsaved.” This was problem #1 that jumped out at me from Crazy for God. The reason why I think this was a major problem is because in 1 Tim 3 Paul explains what the qualifications are for bishops and deacons (this would be the equivalent to the requirements for our “leaders” or “overseers” in the Christian community). For both bishops and deacons the requirement is that his own house is to be in order “because” if a man does not know how to rule his own house (this includes his children), then how can he take care of the church of God? That’s Paul’s instruction, not mine. Frank had written that often his parents didn’t even know where he was, much less what he was doing. And boy oh boy, he was mischievious! Knowing that it’s a common practice for missionary families to send their kids off to boarding school, I think this is an epidemic problem in the Christian community regarding leadership qualifications. How can one rule over their children, when they are not even living with them? Instead, the boarding teachers are ruling over the children indoctrinating them in whatever heresies they might be dabbling with. If the parents can’t teach or rule their own kids (because they’re not even with them), then according to Paul, they are not qualified to be leaders. This may also be very telling regarding the currently accepted approach to missionary work in general if the families are commonly split apart and not enough time is devoted to the physical “and” spiritual well being of their children.
Okay, my time’s up. Must dash for now. More later.
Marlakins
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05.22.09
Posted in Movie commentary, Uncategorized, knitting and crocheting at 9:26 pm by Administrator
Today we headed out to the Grove to watch the movie, Terminator Salvation. Being that we’re long-time fans of the Terminator series, we had to go see this one on big screen. I just love the surround sound when you can feel the ground rumble with all the explosions, hehehe. Not that I would like to be a in a “real” battlefield, but watching it in the movies makes for okay entertainment.
Now that I’ve watched it, I have to join in on the critiqing, right? Before watching the movie I noticed that some people were giving it an “A” rating, while others were giving it a “D”. Hmm, I thought, what gives? People seemed to either love it or “kinda” hated it, ha! Now that I’ve seen it, I think I understand why. . .
First of all, let’s start with the good things. There was lots of action–chase scenes, terminator encounters, and of course guns, guns, guns, and weapons. Well, maybe it was just “guns” and “weapons,” since really it was rather tame in that respect in comparison to other movies. So if your thing is watching things go boom, then this is a movie for you. The part where Kyle gets behind the wheel and drives. . . eh, that type of scene seemed to belong more in an Indiana Jones sequence, not in the Terminator, although it was funny when Marcus kicked him out of the car afterward. However, as far as storyline, well, I think it was a bit lacking. It had good parts like Marcus’s character–the terminator who didn’t know he was a terminator, oye–but strangely Marcus was more captivating than the expected heroes, John Connor and Kyle Reese. Aren’t we supposed to be routing for John Connor and Kyle Reese? Well then I think their characters needed more charisma written into their scripts or something because it was lacking in my estimation. And while we all know that the storyline for the Terminator is pure fantasy (and that’s part of the fun of this story), it does get distracting when there’s just too much fantasy like the heart transplant. . . eh, it’s hard to get it around my head when in this day and age organ rejection is pretty much a guaranteed complication in the transplant world. You can’t pull the wool over my eyes on that one, bud. No tissue typing or worries about tissue rejection? Come on. . . John needs to be in tip top shape to fight in the next two sequels! I can’t imagine him stopping off at the pharmacy from time to time to get his immunosuppressants. Why did they do that to John? The part in The Rock where Nicholas Cage injects himself in the heart to deliver the anti-toxin serum was much more believeable even if unlikely.
As far as the storyline making sense, why was Marcus chosen? Maybe they’ll disclose that in part II? Who was that doc that had him “sign” for his consent? Why bother with a consent signature if he was going to be executed anyway? Like Cyberdine would let a little thing like a “signature” hold them back from getting the tissues they wanted from a jail bird on death row. And why did they bother writing in the script that the doctor or whoever that bald lady was had cancer? Was there any relevance in the movie to that? Or maybe they just like bald women? And Marcus kissed her why? Marcus walks for miles and miles and co-incidentally walks in to Los Angeles and finds Kyle, of all people! Well, I suppose they had to meet somehow. . . And who is that little girl? And why can’t she speak? Now, I liked Blair. But again, I found her character more likeable than John Connor and Kyle Reese, too. Oye! What gives? The heros don’t exude hero-ness in this movie. I wanted to like them, I really, really did. So that was a bit of a let down. I hope part II is better. I likely would still want to see it, but “please,” better script, okay? Given the action and the so so storyline, I can see why the movie got such varied reviews. It left me scratching my head a bit, too.
So moving right along. . . since movie theaters tend to be chilly inside, I had a chance to test out my new caplet! Which co-incidentally, while I was making it, I made a discovery–the real cause of global warming. . .
I actually finished it some time in the beginning of this week, but didn’t get the buttons until yesterday. These buttons were from International Silks and Woolens.
Here’s what the completed caplet looks like.
Aaron took another picture because my hair was covering the collar (not to mention my hair was messy, too, ugh), so he tried another shot which turned out to be a slightly different angle of the caplet. Matthew said it looks like Little “Orange” Riding Hood. I like it because it’s long enough to feel like a little blanket, but not so long that it interferes with my hands. The other ponchos I’ve used have been too long and get in the way with using my hands, so this is nice for me. I may just make a couple other styles like this length for variety.
I didn’t know until I got home and uploaded the pictures that the details of the caplet didn’t really show up. It’s hard to tell in the above pic that there is even a collar or any lace work at all. So, I thought I’d try to take a closer up shot.
The buttons are a tad large, but I preferred them to the next smaller size which might later cause me grief if they ended up slipping out of the holes too easily. So I went ahead with the larger buttons. The yarn I used was Paton’s Classic Wool, paprika color. It took three skeins using size 9 and 8 US circular needles. The pattern was from a book called Wrap Style by Pam Allen and Ann Budd. The pattern is the Lace-Edged Cardigan with Collar Caplet on page 57.
While I’m on the knitting update, here are the green socks I made for Andrew that I was too lazy to upload on my previous knitting update.
These are Aaron’s legs, not mine. Thought I’d mention that since now he’s starting to grow leg hairs! I try not to let my leg hairs get that long. Tee hee.
And finally here are some baby hats that I’ve been making. I thought I was going to give charity knitting a rest, but I figured that I could still do some newborn hats in between projects since they’re so small. Actually these are quite small since Stitches from the Heart supplies hats for preemies. So I whipped up these quick little things.
The pattern for this is very basic. I used worsted weight yarn on 7 US circular needles. These caps are started from the top-down and knitted in the round using the Magic Loop method. To start, CO 6. Knit in front and back of each stitch–12 stitches. Knit next round. *K1, increase 1* repeat from * to * to end of round. Knit next round. *K2, increase 1* repeat from * to * to end of round. Knit next round. *K3, increase 1* repeat from * to * to end of round. Knit next round. Continue in same increase progression until you reach either 6 or 7 knits in between increases. This should make the hat about 12 or 13 inches in diameter depending upon the size of yarn and needles used. Once the proper circumference is reached, knit even rounds for about 7 or 8 rows. Switch to 1×1 rib for about 7 or 8 rounds. I like to use the invisible bind off to finish. And that’s it!
The other thing I’ve been working on is reading. I did eventually get Frank Schaeffer’s book, Crazy for God, from the library and am about half way through. I’m glad I decided to read it before commenting because it is an eye-opener. I personally thought his dad, Francis, had a stroke of genius in him and never really bothered to look any further as to what his person was like or what his life was like. Actually regardless of what his person or life was like his books such as The God Who is There, and Escape From Reason and many others are still very insightful and do impart some truth. So it’s really disappointing to read some of the stuff Frank reveals about his family. My original goal was to find out why Frank converted to Orthodox, so I have been researching more and, wow, this has been an eye-opener. While so far Frank’s book doesn’t say exactly why he converted, I think I’m getting hints already. I hope to comment on Frank’s book when I’m done reading it. I have been reading other comments/reviews on his book, too, to get a better feel of what’s been going on, which have also been very insightful to me. Now with all that said, I think I’m gonna go continue reading Crazy for God.
Toodles for now.
Marlakins
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05.20.09
Posted in Playing the Tourist, Uncategorized at 12:03 am by Administrator
Yesterday morning I got an email from my friends from the Isle of Man. The letter began:
“Hello Marla,
How nice to receive news from you actually on the 15th May, a whole 12mths on from last years visit, it seems only yesterday. . .”
It does seem almost like yesterday that Brian and I visited the Isle of Man, yet also seems far away since so many things have transpired in the time between. My friends informed me that we were lucky during our visit last year as this year the weather is not as nice. I really do think God smiled on us on that trip as the whole trip was really beautiful! The weather was mild and everything was in full bloom. And while I thought I had lost some of my pictures when my computer crashed last October, I found just recently that my son, Matty, had saved my pictures on a CD without my knowing! Thus I still have all my pictures after all! So I’ve been looking through them again, and also looked in my journal as to what we were doing this day last year. One of the things we did was take a boat ride out to the Calf of Man. Afterward we hiked out to Milner’s Tower, then had dinner with our friends at The Garrison.
The Calf of Man is a small island off the south end of the Isle of Man. No one lives there and is primarily a site for observation such as wildlife observation and such. Here’s a small map of it.
As I mentioned, the Calf of Man is just off the south of the Isle of Man. At that southern tip of the Isle of Man is the Sound where there is also a restaurant called The Sound with large glass windows where one can dine and watch the view. Brian and I tried to go there for a meal, but each time we visited, it was closed. Apparently they had short operating hours. We walked around the Sound anyway and took some shots. Here’s Brian at the Sound. The Calf of Man is just across the water behind. There were also a couple memorial placcards explaining some shipwrecks that occurred in this location in the past. One in the 1800s was particularly devastating where a number of people perished.
We wanted to take a closer look at the Calf of Man, so we found a boat ride that would take us out there. The boat left from Port Erin. Here’s a pic of the tiny boat we took. The background is part of Port Erin.
I still remember how quiet this place was. Since Brian and I didn’t know where to take a boat we had driven to Castletown Harbour first. All looked quiet with not a person in sight. We drove around and could see the boats out in the water, but no obvious clues as to who could direct us to charter a boat ride. Finally we found a man working outside. As we got closer I could see he was completely weathered and fully tatooed. We asked him where everyone was and why it was so quiet. I was wondering if it was a special holiday or something and perhaps everything was closed. The man replied, “Oh no, it’s like this here every day. This is our busy day!” Ha ha ha! Well now. . . talk about a sleepy town! Fortunately, he was a nice guy and directed us to Port Erin where we could charter a boat ride.
When we got to Port Erin is was a “tad” busier, but not by much! However we did find some men hanging out, and upon asking about a boat ride, they exclaimed, “We’ll take you! We’re just waiting for another couple to arrive who are going to the Calf, so once they get here we can get going.” Ha! Ah, so that’s how it’s done. . . At the appointed time, we paid our fare and off we went. One of the first shots I took as the boat left dock was of Milner’s Tower. It can be seen on the left of the tip of this peninsula. Not long after our boat ride, Brian and I hiked up to get a closer look at that tower.
It got a bit chilly out there, so had to don my hat. . .
This is just arriving at the Calf of Man.
On the way back we went up just half way around the Calf before heading back to Port Erin. This is the half way point. The lighthouse on the Calf can be seen from here.
While it’s difficult to see it in these pictures, there are actually sheep on the sides of these rocks. The guides on our boat told us that the sheep often graze just off the sides of the cliffs, so sometimes they fall off, and they find a sheep dead in the water. . . awww.
As I mentioned that the Calf really is only an observation point, there are no facilities for visitors to stay. IIRC, I believe this structure is the only one on the Calf.
I actually took a lot of pictures trying capture all the birds and seals and anything else on the boat ride, but they did not come out clear enough on my camera. However some of the other boats on the water came out okay. . . Here’s one of a boat we crossed along the way. The sailor is at the door in a yellow overall waving at us. Probably have to squint to see him, hee. Such friendly people!
This is just a shot of some of the rocks we came close to on the way back.
And finally at the end of our ride, I asked if we could take a picture with the Captian with his mate and his dog. His dog was so cute and really seemed to love sailing. The Captian was obviously a natural at this and said, “Sure!” Then he grabbed his dog and threw his arm around me for this shot, heheheh.
A year later, I imagine them sailing there still with their dog and the lovely sea.
Ah, thank God for pleasant memories. . .
Marlakins
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05.19.09
Posted in Book Reviews, History, Uncategorized at 1:09 am by Administrator
I finished reading King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild last weekend, and oh my!, what a book it is. . . The story Hochschild reveals is incredible. While the main topic of the book is about the Congo and King Leopold II’s influence on the Congolese, which ultimately resulted in the deaths of an estimated 10 million Congolese through Leopold’s greed to harvest ivory and wild rubber, nothing remains in a vacuum. Thus many other issues are touched upon in the book. Issues ranging from the history of other nations in their quest of power through colonialization, to the lives of various individuals involved with exploration and colonialization and humanitarian rights, and to the nature of man throughout history.
On the whole I would say that I have a fair amount of interests, however one topic that really pulls on my heart strings is that of oppression and abuse of the poor and the innocent. The story of King Leopold’s Ghost is the epitome of such oppression and abuse imposed upon the Congolese by foreign peoples and even by themselves over the course of more than 400 years. However, as Hochschild points out, what happened in the Congo, despite how horrific it was, was not an isolated event. The horrors that took place there–the destruction of villages and the massacres of the villagers, the forced slavery, and the mutilations–is a recurring theme throughout the history of mankind. I’m always appalled when I learn about such abuses on a small scale (such as a random murder case relayed on the nightly news). Then I become utterly stunned when I learn of it on a large scale (such as the massacres in Rwanda in 1994 wherein close to a million people were killed in about 3 months). Things run through my mind like, “how can these things happen on such a large scale?” Where’s the outcry? Then I realize that it happens over and over again throughout history from the time of the Egyptians, to the Romans, to the Armenian genocide, the Jewish Holocaust, the Great Leap Forward, etc. to name only a few. I’m left to realize that God is really a merciful God to allow us to continue to live while we humans continually perpetrate evil every day. One would think that to look at the human race from the outside would prove us barbaric and not worthy of living (much like the story line of “The Day the Earth Stood Still”). And then I remember that along with all the evil, there is also good. Just as evil and terror have existed throughout history, so has good existed as those who see injustice stand up and fight for those under oppression. In the Bible before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, God spoke to Abraham. God told him that the evil in Sodom and Gomorrah cries out to Me. I’m gonna go down there and check it out. . . Abraham then pleaded with God to spare the people. In Genesis 18:23 it says, “And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” “What if,” asked Abraham, “there were 50 righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, would You destroy them along with the wicked?” God replied that He would not destroy the place if there were 50 righteous people. Then Abraham asked, “How about if there were only 45?” Again, God replied that He would spare the people. Abraham continued to press and asked, “How about 30?” Again, God would spare the place. Abraham continued, “How about 20? How about 10?” “For 10,” God replied, He would spare the people, and down He went to visit Sodom and Gomorrah, where evidently He did not find even 10 righteous people. The rest is history. From the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, I think the reason humanity continues to exists even amidst all the evil is that there are still some good people struggling amongst the evil. So not only does God see all the evil, He also sees the good.
I have never been to any part of Africa, but from the varied news clippings I’ve seen of the different African countries, it seems so vast to me and difficult to understand. That is, why is there so much poverty and starvation? Why are there so many wars and in-fighting? I’ve learned of little things here and there, but often times I get a hodge-podge of information that really leaves me clueless regarding understanding Africa. While Hochschild’s book deals primarily with the Congo, now Zaire, I would say that it was the best overview of Congo’s history that I’ve ever learned of any of the other African countries. I have read Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda by Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, which was an amazing account of the events that lead up to and through the 1994 Rwandan massacres, but I was still very much in the dark as to understanding much of African history or culture. The little bit I gleaned from the Rwandan massacre was that during the occupation of the Belgians, the Tutsi were placed as overseers to the Hutu, which subsequently garnered much strife between the two groups. Hochschild’s book started back farther in history and really helped to give me an overview of how so many people in a place like the Congo and other parts of Africa could be subjugated by a smaller population of foreigners. From what I can gather, it seems to be a combination of superstition on the part of the Africans and superior firepower on the part of the European invaders, that allowed greed to overtake and engulf the people’s of Africa. The superstition that the white man was the dead come alive coupled with the white man’s Maxim gun and other modern inventions really gave the Europeans an upper hand over the less armored African natives. Certainly bows and arrows were no match for high powered rifles and machine guns. Any native who did not want to co-operate was killed. Whole villages were wiped out as examples of the consequences of refusing to comply. Comply to what? Ivory and rubber harvesting. The rubber harvesting was particularly devastating to the Africans. Women, children, and the elderly were kidnapped and held ransom for the native men to work collecting wild rubber. It took days and even weeks to collect enough rubber to satisfy the “traders.” During that time the hostages would starve, no work in the villages could go on as the men were out harvesting rubber and the women held hostage in stockades. Naturally starvation ensued along with increased diseases.
Meanwhile in Europe and America the fate of Africa is discussed amongst themselves. No consideration that perhaps the Africans would care to have a say in what happens to Africa or “who” owns Africa. How is it that man can have so little value of another man’s life? Apparently, it’s been done over and over again throughout history. Generally it stems from one man thinking that he is superior to the other. And in the case of Africa, that the Africans weren’t even really human. Many were treated like animals, and this is evident when during an African exhibit in Europe, live Africans were set up on “display” as if in a zoo.
Dehumanization goes both ways. While one man is looked upon as less human or subhuman, the act of looking upon one as less human also dehumanizes the one thinking himself superior. An amazing example of this is Hochschild’s quote from one of the colonizers’ diary. Station chef Georges Briscusse describes in his diary a hanging he ordered in 1895 of a man who had stolen a rifle:
“The gallows is set up. The rope is attached, too high. They lift up the nigger and put the noose around him. The rope twists for a few moments, then crack, the man is wriggling on the ground. A shot in the back of the neck and the game is up. It didn’t make the least impression on me this time!! And to think that the first time I saw the chicotte [a whip made of course hippo hide commonly used for flogging] administered, I was pale with fright. Africa has some use after all. I could now walk into fire as if to a wedding.”
Hochschild did a wonderful job quoting many journal entries and using those along with news articles and letters to piece the history of Leopold’s Congo together. He tried to see as many angles as possible and lamented that since all the recorded history is from the colonizers or westerners, there is very little in comparison of the perspective of the African. However even so, the journals and myriads of documentations from traders, soldiers, missionaries and others helped tremendously in exposing the torment the Africans had to endure. Photographs of Africans in chains and with severed hands are apparently still filed away in the humanitarian society in the UK that was founded by E.D. Morel.
King Leopold’s Ghost also reveals how even back then, literally more than 100 years ago, the media was easily manipulated. Newspaper agents were bought and used for propaganda to fool the public. And the nature of the masses then, as they are today, is to easily “forget” any or even all wrong-doings. Fortunately, amongst all the chaos, there is always those who are more alert and full of conscience. They are the ones who take up the task to fight for the oppressed. E.D. Morel along with several others such as Sir Roger Casement, Reverend William H. Sheppard, Hezekiah Andrew Shanu, George Washington Williams, and others were the lights that dared to expose the evils in Africa. I would also say that Adam Hochschild joins their ranks as his book, King Leopold’s Ghost not only raised awareness, but also did raise dissent. Africa evidently, has vast resources, of which many corporations have high stakes.
There is so much more that can be discussed regarding Hochschild’s book. It’s an amazing work. I know I’m gonna want to reference it again another time. I’m very glad to have read it, and it certainly has rekindled my yearning to understand more of what this life is all about. Towards the end of the book Hochschild mentions that one of the on-going problems in Africa is that they need to respect the women more. Unfortunately, he didn’t elaborate on that. I wish he had. While I certainly think that it’s important to respect the women, I personally think one of the major things needed in Africa is Christ’s love. Because greed and selfishness is what I think perpetuates the corruption in Africa today. Particularly in the diamond mines and the harvesting of other natural resources. There is so much to Africa. I’m glad I read Hochschild’s book. I give it a two thumbs up, and highly recommend it to anybody.
Marlakins
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05.15.09
Posted in Historical Trivia, Uncategorized at 5:05 pm by Administrator
I’m currently reading a book titled, King Leopold’s Ghost, by Adam Hochschild. So far I’ve got about three more chapters, and then I’ll be done with it. I will definitely want to post my review of this book as it is definitely a very good read. It has piqued my interested in reading another book called, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad. Fortunately, the County library system has a copy of it, so I now have it on hold. It’s just incredible the things that go on in this world. . .
Since I want to finish the book before commenting too much on it, I thought for now I’d share some trivia pictures that I was reminded of when reading about E.D. Morel. E.D. Morel, was the man who relentlessly worked at exposing the atrocities perpetrated against the natives in the Congo as a result of King Leopold IIs policies to colonize the Congo and acquire ivory and rubber. As a result of Morel’s prowess in gathering facts and disseminating information, he soon found that people from all sort of places sought him out and thus other more prominent people joined his cause to expose Leopold’s crimes against the Congolese. Surprising to me was that Mark Twain became involved with the movement to help the Congolese, and another known figure who became one of Morel’s good friends was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. The mention of Sherlock Holmes is what reminded me that just last year about this time Brian and I were in the UK. While there we visited many museums, one included the Sherlock Holmes Museum located on 221B Baker Street.
I’m standing next to the man at the entrance of the museum. Yeah, I know I’m short, but really I think he was extra tall. . . Right next door where the sign is for the Sherlock Holmes Museum is actually their gift store and also where the tickets are purchased to enter the museum. Here’s what the inside of the gift store looked like.
Tickets to the museum are purchased in here, then the entrance is right next door. Upon entering, the first thing one sees is this stairway. What’s upstairs? Follow me. . .
At the first flight of stairs is the parlour. A guide dressed as Dr. Watson greets us. Here he is with Brian.
Right next to the parlour is Dr. Watson’s room.
Amongst his belongs is his journal.
IIRC, the next flight up is Mrs. Hudson’s room. This is the fireplace.
As a result of the climate in the UK, I think all of the residences must have fireplaces. I recall looking up at the buildings and seeing chimney stacks galore! I know I even took some pictures of the chimneys because there were so many! I am reminded of how in the older days they used to burn coal in the fireplaces, and oh what pollution that created! One of the knit ladies I know used to live in London during those times, and she was telling me how when she was younger the pollution was so bad that she even got lost coming home once. The air was that thick and difficult to navigate. And when she did get home, her mom asked her what was on her face. It turned out it was “soot” from all the pollution outside! And I think this was also the type of pollution that made the hazy weather conditions “favorable” for Jack the Ripper, ack! Remember him? Thank goodness for environmental restrictions. Anyway. . . moving right along, the next flight of stairs had more Sherlock Holmes paraphernalia such as these.
And even wax figures of some of the characters in Doyle’s books such as these.
And these.
There were actually a few more figures and lots more articles like letters and other trinkets (books, binoculars, tools of all sorts, etc). But as usual, blog space limits. . . So I’ll end with the top floor, which was one single room that stored luggage and the water closet. I had to take a picture of that toilet because personally this one was one of the more ornate ones I’ve seen.
Really, those Victorians left nothing undecorated! At least it’s a pleasant atmosphere. Heaven knows I’ve seen “many” restrooms that gave me the hibby jeebies, so pleasant looking bathrooms are always notable to me, ha! Course, I’m not used to relieving myself in decorated toilet bowls! Plain on the inside would have been good enough for me. . .
Marlakins
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05.11.09
Posted in Uncategorized, food and restaurants, knitting and crocheting at 5:23 pm by Administrator
I had hoped to wish everyone a Happy Mother’s Day yesterday, but alas, I didn’t get the chance. So instead, here’s to hoping everyone “had” a Happy Mother’s Day, heheh.
We had a simple gathering for Mother’s Day, which was okay by me, as it is a lot less stressful than to have to get all dressed up for a fancy, expensive restaurant. We had done just that a couple weeks ago for my dad’s birthday, so really the biggest relief is that my wallet just can’t take fancy gatherings, sigh. This year we headed out to a down-to-earth restaurant called Granville in Burbank. Actually, it’s the same place we went to last year. It’s one of the few places that my boys can go to to have pizza, so they were looking forward to Mother’s Day, ha! Considering we hadn’t been back there since last year, that means the boys haven’t had pizza for a year. . . So for those like me who like food commentaries with pictures, here’s what one of the pizza’s at Granville looks like. This was Aaron’s order–an artichoke and olive pizza with tomatoes on the side.
My sister thought she’d order something light since she tends to eat like a bird, anyway. But we laughed when her soup bowl arrived because the size of the bowl rivaled some of the washbasins we’ve seen.
My other sister also ordered a soup, but hers came in a normal-sized bowl. Perhaps since it was a rib-eye soup, it would cost a lot more in a larger bowl, ha ha!
I didn’t take a picture of everyone’s dishes or the other sides like the sweet potato fries and scones because they started digging into them before I could steal a shot. But since both Matty and Andrew ordered cheese pizzas (Granville has a cheese pizza with five different kinds of cheese), I didn’t think they would look too exciting anyway. I mean melted cheese looks like melted cheese, right? I forget what my brother-in-law ordered, err I think it was a breakfast dish, and my dad ordered a seared tuna sandwich. Here’s what my mom ordered, salmon.
I had the Santa Barbara Chicken Sandwich, but since I do have diet restrictions, I took out the red bell pepper slices and gave away the homemade potato chips, wah. . .
I rarely have sandwiches, so this was a real treat for me, anyway. And so far so good, I haven’t broken out, so it seems the little bit of cheese in the sandwich was okay with me. I hope that means that my health is improving that I’m not so sensitive anymore to cheese.
Although it looked yummy, I refrained from part taking of the dessert sampler, so my sisters split this between the two of them. Apparently the men in our group were abstaining from desserts, too, as they claimed that they were trying to keep their girlish figures, ha ha.
Along with the food and the nice company, my boys gave my mom a couple scarves for Mother’s Day. Here’s my mom with one of the scarves.
Brian and I got her a pendant and a pair of earrings which I placed in a small knitted pouch I made with some stash yarn I had at home. I’m finding that I like making little pouches out of my left over yarns because I think it’s a nice way to make something useful out of the many scarp pieces I’m starting to collect. I hate to waste supplies, so I’m glad that something useful can come out of it. Here’s what the pouch looked like.
I also got a nice gift for Mother’s Day, which I really love–a Victorian Lace Book and a hank of lace-weight 100% Suri Alpaca by The Alpaca Yarn Company. Oye, do I look forward to working this one up! While I also got some ecological wool to knit, it’s really not for me, but for Brian as he wants me to knit up a gansey for him.
And since the “knit” topic is up, here’s a few more things I’ve been playing with–fruit hats for babies. . .
The two hats on the right (the apple in front and the tomato in the back) are from patterns I found online for free. Here’s the link to the tomato hat. Make sure to read all the instructions first because there are two corrections at the very bottom of the instructions. I can’t seem to find the link to the apple hat, but it is a pattern I printed off of the computer a couple years ago that was offered for free. The hat on the left is supposed to be a strawberry dipped in chocolate hat. I saw this on an Etsy account and thought it was so cute that I had to try making one. And finally the purple hat at the back is my version of an eggplant hat. I made the leaves larger and only four around because Brian insisted that eggplants had big stems with only four leaves. My sister grabbed the apple and the eggplant hats, so now they belong to Banini.
I did finish a pair of socks for Andrew, but I’m too lazy to upload anymore pictures right now, so I’ll likely post those on my next knitting update. For now, this is what I have on the needles–a caplet. The pattern is from a book called “Wrap Style,” and I’m working it up on Paton’s Classic wool using US 9 circulars. Since one of the items on my “to learn” list is how to make a top-down raglan, I’m finding this a perfect project. It starts from the top-down using a raglan shoulder, but I don’t have to worry about sleeves. This is what I have so far.
And that’s it! Hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day. Now to start getting ready for Father’s Day!
Marlakins
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