Wow. So I guess I'm not the only one who dislikes the automated checkoutlines.

My main complaint (well, other than the feeling that I'm being used as a tool to make more money for the store's corporate owner while taking away jobs from checkers) is that it's an imperfect technology; it messes up too often for me.

I think many of us have had experience with internet shopping sites that are quick and easy and work well, and other sites (I remember my father cursing over an online ticketing site for plane tickets while I was up visiting) that are poorly designed, or buggy, or that time you out too fast if you're not Mr. or Ms. Touch-Type.

Or maybe I'm just cack-handed at dealing with that kind of technology, but I kind of think that's not it.

On the crafting front, I worked some more on the big quilt this weekend - finished quilting another block (20 or so more to go, sigh). I also have about five inches done on the Tilling the Soil vest. Rice stich goes slowly for me, but I'm liking the pattern and the wool so it's really not a drag. And the vest should be warm when it's done because the rice stitch is so dense.

I also knit a couple more of the "flower motifs" for the Joan of Arc stole (as I'm going to call it from here on out, as FCEKaC didn't give it a name). I've figured out how this part of the pattern works; I hope I'm quicker on the draw with the rest of the stole. (Maybe part of the reason I prefer knitting to crochet is that knitting fits my personal logic better? I did a lot of crochet when I was younger but most of it was freeform and without a pattern, and I find following a crochet pattern sort of challenging. )