stash busting; stash enhancing

Since I've been pretty stressed lately, I've also started making record purchases of yarn. I'm usually fairly restrained, but hoo boy, not these days. In the last two weeks alone, I've bought five different kinds of yarn. Bad!

But every time I feel bad, I think about this lady's stash, and then I don't feel so guilty. Now THAT is a yarn stash. (Scroll down to see the full majesty.)

puff-sleeved mess

So I finished all but the button bands of my Puff-Sleeved Cardigan from Fitted Knits, and what I have is a Knit that Does Not Fit. It is so big that I can wrap it around like a kimono, and yet...I still HAVE NOT ADDED THE FRICKIN BUTTON BANDS YET. That is two more inches of fabric. This is what happens when you notice a problem with row gauge and yet blindly persist in knitting the other 75% of a garment. That, folks, is called denial.

However, all is not wasted. I learned several important things while knitting this doomed item, namely that in order for a sweater to fit me, I am always going to have to modify the bust and shoulder sections, unless the pattern is specifically written for someone freakishly narrow-shouldered and small-busted. Like, uh, me.

perspective

Tonight we went to see a play about a World War II vet and his daughter (Roy Teed's Shadows From A Low Stone Wall). It was really good. Before the show started I was talking to my friend who was doing box office and is also the stage manager (it was a really small production) and asked her how it was going. She said pretty good--she had been a little stressed, but then on the way to the theatre she heard a segment on the CBC about the shockingly high death rate among Afghani police officers and how when they get shot they get taken to the hospital where the doctors and nurses put tampons in the bullet holes. She said it gave her a little perspective.

Sometimes when I'm feeling really burned out and can't handle it any more, I think about Rescue Dawn, the movie I saw a few weeks ago about the true story of POWs in the jungles of Laos during the Vietnam war. It makes me think a) my life really isn't that bad. At least I'm not being forced to survive on maggoty rice and trying to plot my escape from a POW camp, and b) I wouldn't last more than 20 minutes in a POW camp. Maximum.

because we all wanted to know what the heck they were saying

You may have seen these Gossiping Kitties on Cute Overload:



We now have the newly translated version for those of us who do not speak Cat:



[via Cute Overload]

The Three-Variable Funny Test

Although I ought to be doing work (ha) I was perusing this Metafilter thread on Sarah Silverman with interest. I have not seen much of her stand-up comedy and have seen none of her TV show, but I must say what I have seen does not interest me much. I think it's because I find her whole "I'm going to coyly say shockingly racist/misogynist/offensive things and it will be hilarious because really you know that I'm Jewish/a woman/progressive and so I don't mean it" schtick to be incredibly tiresome.

Anyway, someone in the discussion thread linked to The Three Variable Funny Test: What is your humour style? I took the quiz and discovered that my humour style is "clean, complex, and dark" (5% vulgar, 26% spontaneous, 61% dark--where the other 8 percent went, I don't know), and that I tend to enjoy the humour of Woody Allen, Jon Stewart, and Ricky Gervais. The quiz makers then go on to suggest that I would probably enjoy the BBC version of The Office. I am actually not surprised by this since I recently watched the first season of same and enjoyed it greatly.

[However, I feel compelled to point out that the CBC TV show The Newsroom did it first, and possibly better.]

el dia de los muertos

Via Metafilter, a cool animation about the business of death in the modern world. Very Edward Gorey-esque, with some good music to boot.