I am a Children’s Librarian living in the Portland, Oregon area. When I am not Children’s Librianing I like to play with cameras and film. I also like playing the ukulele, knitting, sketching, and hiking.
Today is my birthday. And I can’t believe I’m 38 years old. Where has all of the time gone?
I got a card and a strawberry shortcake at work. In my card, someone was kind enough to say, “Happy 23rd birthday, Monica!” Awww! That was so nice.
I have kind of a busy day planned. I’m going out to breakfast with my dad, and then I’m going to my mom’s house tonight for dinner and cake. I was hoping i could go for a hike or something but I don’t think that’s happening. It’s raining anyway.
I have the next week off and I’m sooo looking forward to it. I am still trying to get over this horrible cold that I have so I’m looking forward to resting. Maybe I will actually post on this blog this week since I will have time.
This is a picture of me when I was around 7 year old. It was taken at Cannon Beach, OR. Notice how happy I look? It’s because I’m at the ocean. The ocean is calling me now, too. I am really hoping that later this week we will be able to take a short little trip to the coast. I need to see the ocean.
First of all, thanks for all of the well wishes. I’m feeling a bit better. Not 100% but I’m back at work at least. I have next week off so I’m hoping I will get some nice R&R to really kill this virus that I have.
Okay. I need to rant a little bit about something. You have been forewarned if you don’t want to hear me whine. It’ has to do with the knitting world. I should be posting this on my knitting blog but I’m not. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m chicken? I don’t know.
My mom and I are going to start making little crafty things and sell them in craft shows. We have our first one in July and I have been trying to come up with some inventory. I thought that I would knit up some washcloths because they are fast and cheap and easy to make. And I’m thinking that they might sell because they are useful. I thought I would just knit up some cool stitch patterns I’ve seen here and there. No big deal.
So I’m searching the web for something entirely different and I come across a knitting blog that has some free patterns for washcloths. I take a look at one of them. It’s a swatch of modular knitting, basically. I actually was going to do this for some of my washcloths just to kind of mix things up a bit and make them more interesting than a garter stitch swatch. So I scroll through this pattern and I notice that it’s copyrighted. Copyrighted?!? You have got to be kidding me. A swatch of modular knitting is copyrighted. So even though I had this idea to knit up some washcloths using modular knitting and sell them BEFORE I saw this pattern, I can’t do it because this random knitter has copyrighted this pattern? I find this totally ridiculous.
I have been thinking about this for awhile because I got a form e-mail a few months ago from another designer containing her copyright statement. I bought a pattern from her and am on her mailing list. However, the pattern that I bought was not really all that innovative. I bought a tank top pattern. It’s basically just your standard “knitted in stockinette in the round from the bottom up” pattern. There really is nothing innovative an new about it. No interesting stitch patterns. No interesting lacy bits on it anywhere. Yet it is copyrighted. So now I can’t make a tank top in the round and sell it. Nor can I create a tank top pattern using this technique because it is copyrighted. How can this be? Granted, this designer does have lots of other patterns that are very innovative that should be copyrighted. But I just can’t see why a simple tank top pattern using a knitting technique that has been around forever should be copyrighted.
I think the whole “Stitch-n-Bitch” controversy falls into this conversation, too. Why do people feel the need to copyright things that are already in the public domain?
Okay. End of rant. I just needed to get that out. I am not an expert on this subject matter so maybe i have no right to even comment on it. thanks for listening, anyway.
I finished reading Holes by Sachar (1999) last week. I absolutely loved it. I think it’s my favorite Newberry winner so far.
If you haven’t read it, it’s about a boy, Stanley, who is sent away to a correctional camp in Texas called Camp Green Lake. Only there is no lake, and it’s certainly not green. It’s in the middle of the desert and the boys who are sent there are forced to dig one hole each day. In between Stanley’s story are the stories of Stanley’s great grandfather, which takes place in Latvia, and the story of Kate Barlow, which takes place a hundred years ago in the city of Green Lake (when there really was a lake).
I loved how Sachar connected the past and the present, and how the things that Kate Barlow did helped Stanley get out of his predicament. This is my favorite Newberry Award winner so far. Great book. I highly recommend it if you’ve never read it.
I have been pulling my hair out the past few days at the latest in the Neocon’s dispicable antics. That is, to call Al Gore a hypocrite because his electricity bill is high. There are so many things wrong with this attack. So many things. First of all, it’s so obviously an attempt to swift-boat Gore. And it’s laughable. And I, personally, am really sick and tired of the Rovian attacks the right wing employs. Sick and tired of it. Secondly, Global Warming is there no matter what. It doesn’t matter how big anyone’s electricity bill is. Al Gore’s electricty bill has nothing to do with the larger issue of Global Warming. NOTHING. And everyone needs to do something to minimize the effects of it. Pandagon explains it quite succinctly:
Gore should probably do more personally if his bills are indeed that high, but on the whole, it’s hardly relevant compared to the huge amount of work that he’s done advocating for a collective response. Calling Ted Haggard a hypocrite dramatically undermines his message, because his belief that being gay is wrong is based strictly on religious faith. Calling Al Gore a hypocrite and deciding this excuses your SUV-driving doesn’t change the facts; the planet will still fry even as your conscience is clear because you called Gore a hypocrite. Even if Al Gore were the highest carbon emitter on the planet, this would not change the truth about global warming one bit.
That’s right. So shut off your damn lights when you leave a room. It will help you in the long run anyway.
The benefits of doing something to lower your environmental footprint far, far outweight the costs.
Today is my birthday. And I can’t believe I’m 38 years old. Where has all of the time gone?
