Collie's Bestiary

Woohoo! I am now certified on the TechShop embroidery machine! Our practice to prove that we'd mastered the teaching was to make these cute little patches (the photo is slightly larger than life-sized), which I promptly gifted to one of my ever-deserving housemates. :)

The embroidery machine is surprisingly flexible, even though it can take forever for it to work through the programmed stitching. However, the instructor mentioned that it is perfectly acceptable to set up the run, then sit next to the madly stitching machine while you're working on something else on your laptop or tablet. Also, I've been assured custom stitching is both feasible and easy to do once the stitching program has been learned, so that's next on my to-do list for costumery. Things are progressing nicely!

I don't think I'll include learning the custom elements of the embroidery program as a first, though, since I'm counting this class on how to use the embroidery machine. Instead I hope to count my first good piece of custom work as a first. I suspect, with some glittery thread, that really nice hip sashes could be made for belly dancing! I'm also going to study this machine to see if I can use it to help with the planned Sarmatian clothing I want to make. Some of the decorations appear to be like the Central Asian shyrdak rugs, where many differently-colored pieces of felt are layered, then careful cut-outs are made in each layer, which create colorful contrasting patterns. I want to check out whether I can use the embroidery machine to outline and hem the edges of where the felt needs to be cut away.

So! If you have any interesting patches you want done, let me know? I'd like to experiment with some cool patterns to embroider, and I'd love to work with friends. Contact me! :)

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Once a week we usually have some friends over for dinner and gaming or video-watching. For the night falling on Hallowe'en week I decided to celebrate a bit with a special recipe: Rat on a Stick! Here it is in all its delightfully messy glory:

Rat on a Stick

Ingredients:
1 to 1-1/2 lbs. ground beef
1/2 cup finely crushed cheddar cheese crackers
1 egg
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 lb. cheese (Colby, Colby Cheddar, or Jack Colby)
1 Tbsp. honey
1 cup barbecue sauce
8 wooden meat skewers or equivalent

- for optional tails -
4 pieces spaghetti
red food coloring

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Yesterday I had a wonderful but accidental first while trying to get photos for another of my firsts: I successfully took some pictures with my new xoom tablet, then uploaded them to our server — all by myself! This might not sound like much to the heavily geekified, but it is for me. The xoom arrives with absolutely no help documents worthy of the name, which is an appalling lack if you ask me. As one of my sweeties is fond of saying, "If the user can't find it — it doesn't exist!"

So (with a small growl of irritation) I checked out the Xoom for Dummies book from the library. However, despite the stupid title the book has proven its worth for me. Today I used it to help me take some photos with the xoom, troubleshoot an issue with the Camera right afterward, beam happily at the Gallery, then figure out how to download the photos onto the house's server. Once that was done I uploaded them here, so readers can also see and admire my (*cough*) totally rad awesumsauce l33t skillz! Madly going overboard, there. :)

While doing this I had an interesting side-thought regarding a very nice possible and unwitting byproduct of endeavoring to fulfill this "new things" list. Ordinarily I'd go get someone else to do the research on the xoom for me, then show me how… and I'd get them to upload the photos for me too. This time I decided why not just try it myself?

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It's funny… in making up potential things to try for my 50 New Things list, I find myself adding on all the ideas and events I've wanted to try for a while, but never got around to doing. Some of them are bigger, like "climb Halfdome," but some of them are small and simple. I guess what makes the difference is they're full of meaning for me personally. I like that. :)

So in that vein I decided to try something I've found vaguely intriguing for a while: I looked into getting pretty feathers and tinsel in my hair. Anna, the lady I decided on, is very good — I highly recommend her! She runs Hair Tinsel and Feathers by Anna, and she's patient, very reasonably priced, helpful, and just a generally nice person. Because she's not in a salon I feel she's much more attentive to you as a customer. Also, the cool thing about "tinsel" is it's really silk, which means you can wash both it and the feathers with your hair, with no problems. It was astonishingly easy to have put in, it lasts for several months, and I've already gotten several compliments (yay!), and handed out all the extra cards Anna gave me.

Anna also teaches both Zumba and pole-dancing, so if you go to her and are interested, don't forget to ask about them. I'm considering pole-dancing as something I've never tried before, although I confess I'm waffling a bit due to its "reputation." Then again… it would certainly be different and new for me.

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As you may know from one of my previous postings, in 2011 I had my 50th birthday. I was trying to think of something special to do in order to more fully celebrate that lovely life marker, but couldn't come up with anything that felt quite right. Then I heard a woman talking in a class I was taking, although unfortunately I did not catch her name so I might properly credit her. She told us about her 69th birthday present to herself: to do 69 new things she'd never done before, in the following year. That, I thought, was perfect! In this, my 50th year, I am going to celebrate by trying 50 new things I have never done before.

I've started a page for the 50 things, with those actually accomplished in bold — and sometimes with photos! I'm including possible things to try in italics, and I'd love to hear suggestions from you all as well. For now, I'm three down on the list already: I've learned to use a vinyl cutting machine, I've started participating in kiva microfinancing (thanks so much for the Solstice gift card, Waya!), and I've gone kayaking with manatees. Both were great fun!

With a bit of math, I can see I'll need to do about five new things each month, to have completed my goal by next October the 5th. I'm really looking forward to accomplishing this! It's going to be a great year. Best wishes to you and yours for the upcoming year as well; namaste! :)

I've been effectively running at a frantic pace for the past three or four months, in order to keep up with all the things happening in my life. Several things went by the wayside as I tried to be sure I completed all the reading, thinking, and writing required for my doctoral program. Keeping up communications with friends was one of those things, and for that I sincerely apologize. I'll do my best to try and catch up personally in the near future… while I'm also trying to clean up this incredibly messy house I live in. I swear, my desk has geological layers of relevance underneath the precariously balanced lava-flows of paper!

Another few things which went by the wayside were all my creative efforts (writing for pleasure or the intended novel, sewing, painting, crafting, etc.), and regular exercise (including an exercise class, bicycling, kayaking, hiking, and dancing — darn it!). This clearly must stop, as my brain is filling up with fascinating projects and interesting but half-thought-out ideas — all of which want to come out now, of course. Further, at this point I'm half-afraid to get on my bicycle again, let alone the bathroom scale.

My main project for the next year will be better scheduling, so I can cram in all the outside projects I want to create, and places I want to visit, around the required schoolwork which is effectively my current job. For now I'm going to indulge myself with a bit of writing for fun, to air out some troublesome subjects which I've been pondering. I want to write more here this year, as well, concerning some interesting things which have been happening recently.

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Today is my 50th birthday.

Lying in bed this morning, listening with pleasure to the lovely silvery sound of the falling rain, I found myself pondering an alarming dream from last night, where I had to save the life of a feral kitten from a thoughtlessly cruel acquaintance — a kitten I unwittingly handed over to him.

I consider what this dream is trying to tell me. Am I missing out on life's wonder, due to an insistence it be clean and domesticated and tidy? Is there something waiting for me, soon to be found in my life travels, that will be life and death — that I will have to either protect or resuscitate? Do the thoughtlessly cruel acquaintance and the kitten signify something in my own Self, or something outside me? Why this dream, on this birthday eve?

I am 50 today. I wonder slightly at that. I have half a century of life experience under my belt now. I think back a bit, and have to smile. This is my time of life; a time where I've finally started truly liking and caring for who I am… a time where I've been laying aside protective but isolating personal armor… that I can see now I didn't really need. It's a time when I have finally confidently shed the false skin of "trying to be pretty to attract male attention" and "never pretty or good enough" that my culture believes I should wear.

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It is 11 September 2011, the ten year anniversary of the tragedy of 9/11. Many people have spoken and created many moving eulogies to those who died on that day. I've also heard of interviews with survivors, including one man who was among the only four who survived despite being above the 100th floor of the Twin Towers. I found his words (as related to me by the friend who heard the actual interview) fascinating: he chose not to let his life be defined by that moment, and instead went on to live. Looking back on the past decade, his life since then had not been anything dramatic — he'd not cured cancer or traveled around the globe or anything similar. He had, however, lived what he felt was a good life.

That got me to thinking: if we look back on the last decade of our lives, can we say we have lived well and fully? Have we tried, in whatever small ways we can, to make the world a better place? Do we feel we are better people now?

Sitting there with my friend over lunch, we did so: we looked back at our lives and considered. At that time I had just graduated with my major in Anthropology and minor in Sociology; soon after that I started my own business, which taught me many wonderful things that enriched my life. I also earned my master's in Women's Spirituality, and I am currently working on my PhD. I've tried to share much of the learning about life which I've experienced; it's not always a delightful process, but I find if I take the time to really look, I can see and learn from the positive aspects of most of my life experiences. I am incredibly fortunate in having, at this time, close friends and family, a healthy body, a warmly supportive environment, being financially stable, and working in a field I love.

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I had an interesting bit of cognitive dissonance the other day, upon hearing about Slutwalks. For those who haven't yet heard of them, earlier in 2011 a male cop in Toronto was apparently giving an anti-rape class to a bunch of women. During the class he mentioned one way to avoid being raped was to not dress inappropriately — you know, like a slut.

Quite rightly, there was a huge blow-up about this. Studies have shown repeatedly that rape is not about sex; it's about male insecurity over perceived female power, and consequent violence against women. Further, rapists do not target sexily dressed women — they target women who are vulnerable, that the rapist thinks he can easily overpower. This is why most women know their attackers: the rapist is taking the time to target his next victim. Therefore telling women it's their responsibility to prevent rape (by dressing dowdily) is somewhat like telling an innocent passerby killed by a stray bullet in a drive-by shooting that it was their responsibility to stop drive-by shootings by always wearing kevlar. (If you're interested in more horrifying statistics on rape, check out this page on rape myths and facts.)

The first Slutwalk occurred soon after this blatant gaffe by the cop, with many women and some men parading along the streets carrying anti-rape signs. What made this particular protest distinctive was that many of the women chose to dress "provocatively" or "sexily" — and consequently the media gobbled it up, plastering photos of the most dramatically dressed women in their articles on the movement. The idea spread swiftly, with Slutwalk going international soon thereafter. To my knowledge there have been walks in England, India, South Africa, Australia, and the US as well as Canada, by now.

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Due to California law, medical cannabis dispensaries (I think that's the correct phrase) are springing up all over the place. There is, of course, quite a bit of argument still over these little storefront operations, with some people angrily declaring NIMN (Not In My Neighborhood), and others simply seeing it as another legitimate and tax-paying business. Also — as I recently discovered — you are required by law to have an official prescription card in order to enter one.

I may be the last "square" in the country that hasn't smoked pot, but regardless, I've always thought criminalization of marijuana was a moronic idea. The plant is incredibly useful and flexible: it is environmentally friendly and grows very quickly without requiring extra care or nutrients, and can be used to make bio-degradable paper, incredibly long-lasting cloth, sturdy rope and burlap, a very flexible type of oilseed with uses ranging from medicinal to dietary supplements, birdseed and fishing bait, fuel and mulch, a wide variety of non-allergenic foods, light construction work, weed control, and biodegradable plastics used in car panels.

However, if you take a glance at the history of the criminalization effort, you'll find it's yet another case of corporate greed triumphing over common sense. Check out the wikipedia entry on "hemp" for more information on how fantastic a plant hemp is, and check out Peter McWilliams' fascinating book "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country" for the chapter on how (and the stupid reasons why) hemp became criminalized.

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