First of all:

Fenno the Kitten. (Video; those on dialup may find it slow to load).

One of those things to watch if you need to feel your blood pressure go down.

(I think there should be a Kitten Channel on television. Or a Cute Animals Channel - where there's no commentary really, just video of people petting kittens or dogs playing with rubber balls. Just calming stuff.* Animal Planet comes close sometimes, but then they have to show things like "The Most Extreme" [which is interesting but not relaxing] and those Animal Cops shows that make me want to go out and find the people who abused the animals and sock them in the nose.)

(*there's also an apocryphal story of a cable company that, when they wanted to test a frequency to make sure it was clear for a new channel they were going to carry, trained a camera on a fishtank for about a week. After they changed over from the fishtank to the new channel, they got lots of angry calls, telling them to "Bring back the fish!" I think a Fishtank Channel would be a Good Thing.)

Actually, you know? For me, sometimes a channel with No Talking is what I need. I'd like for there to also be a "Beautiful Landscapes" channel where they show either film or still-shots of lovely landscapes. Maybe play calming music over it. And no talking - they could use a caption to tell people where the landscape was.

Because, it seems to me, that sometimes the problem is Too Much Talking (she says as she writes on and on and on...). Or perhaps Too Much Yelling/Proselytizing/Disagreeing/Hyping. A couple channels I do watch fairly regularly are the Food Channel (but there are some shows I don't like; I can't get into Emeril, for example, and there are a few others where it's more about the presenter than the food). HGTV I've soured on a little bit because it seems like they've become more grandiose. In the right mood I can enjoy Book TV but it's only on on the weekends.

But I've also been watching EWTN some. Yes, the "Catholic" channel. No, I'm not thinking of "crossing the Tiber," as they say. I don't agree with some of the doctrines. But some of the religious chat shows? Are very calming. It's not like most of the Protestant stuff on tv, and I think we could take a lesson from the EWTN book: don't pace around a stage. Don't scream at people. Don't insert shots of the audience looking shocked/sad/happy/whatever. Present your ideas in paragraphs rather than in soundbites. And, for the love of all that's good, speak softly. The other sense I get is that most of the folks on EWTN are not trying hard with body language, or "stories," or threats, to convince anyone of their point of view - it's more, they think, "the information in what I am saying speaks for itself." There's not that same drive to be charismatic*

(*And maybe that's what I'm responding to. I tend to be very suspicious of people who are TOO demonstrative, who seem to be trying too hard to warm up to everyone. The gladhanders. I think it's because I've known a few "gladhanders" in my life, and they've always turned out disappointingly - that there was a lot of darkness hidden behind that broad smile. And conversely, the quiet or even unpreposessing people were the ones who turned out to be the people you could love and rely on.)

(Not that any of the Protestant television stuff is really my brand of Protestantism; televangelism tends to be more of the Pentecostal/conservative Southern Baptist variety. And perhaps the fact that it is telEVANGELISM rather than telTHEOLOGY may be a big part of it.)

It's election season here so I'm looking for some calming things to watch on the telly.

I wound off the ball of "No Kidding" (a megabulky chenille from Skacel) last night. I didn't even try to use the swift and the ballwinder; I just laid the skein out on the floor and slowly untangled and wound it. One problem I've found with knitting on a big big yarn like this - the loops are big enough that they can slip off the back of the straight needle I'm using, even over the "bump" on the needle that's supposed to stop it. And I don't think I have a size 15 circular. So I just have to be careful.

Maybe from now on Mondays will be "It came from the stash! Mondays" where I pull something that's been in my stash for a while and start a new project. Because I have a lot of small project-yarns put aside.