I am debating whether to go to Sherman this afternoon (pros: the day is already half-shot, I can get lunch there, it will be nice to get out, I would have all of Saturday at home. Cons: busier traffic, possibly busier stores than early Saturday morning.)
I want to go to the bookstore and probably to JoAnn's and maybe to Five Below for a few silly things (and to see if they have a good card for the swap I am participating in - the last item for the swap finally shipped and I have the other two, so). And I need to do grocery shopping.
Oh, and I need to get tissue paper and maybe some additional stickers to dress up the package with.
And I went "heh" at this when I saw it online:
Yeah, that's kind of me this year. I'm already thinking about decorating (but am holding off for next weekend, maybe next Friday afternoon) and the music and the special foods and making gifts and having a little time off to do what I want and....oh, everything. (And looking forward to spring semester with only three classes, and no classes where things can change abruptly depending on the whims of government).
I wound off yarn for a "test knit" of the Soccer Mitts for me, and if the pattern works, I am making a pair for the AAUW gift exchange (I have about a month at this point, but if I work hard, I can turn out a pair of mitts in a couple days, and they could even be over-break knitting).
I also need to maybe pick up a skein of sky blue (I got a clarification from my niece) yarn for the chubby cat - I always use acrylic for toys these days and while I might have some sky blue, it would be faster to grab a skein of Vanna's Choice or somesuch and use that. (And I still have Pony plans with some of my acrylics).
And speaking of music: I started trying to play "The Christmas Song" (the form that appears in my "Music from 'a Charlie Brown Christmas'" book I have, but it seems pretty authentic to Tormé's original. I can't play it *yet* but I suspect I may eventually be able to, with work. (As I said earlier: I may be reaching that supposed "10,000 hours of practice and you become an expert" thing. At any rate; my ability to play seems to have taken a leap upward recently, and I'm glad of that. It also makes me want to practice more even in the absence of lessons right now - it's frustrating to feel like you're spinning your wheels, but when you can play something and it's recognizable, and you can even play parts of it kind of *well,* you want to keep working)
Some other thoughts:
- I may look for my "Toys for Tots" gift when I am out and about today. This is a tradition I do. AAUW collects small inexpensive gifts for kids but I like to also give a bigger one - I pick something either I or my brother would have especially liked (a board game, or some kind of animal toy, or some kind of art set) and donate it.
- I am also contemplating that, instead of the donations I send off places (like to a scholarship fund at one of my alma maters), I give more locally this year. One of the people from the local public library spoke at AAUW last night. I had known they were trying to help the local homeless population (providing a safe place for people to hang out, providing some basic food, helping people connect with services so maybe they can eventually stop being homeless...) and it sounds like they could use funds, so maybe I either stop in a day when I know she's in, or mail to her, a $100 check, with a note that I'd like it to be used where ever it is most needed to help with the program. (She did note that they've had to modify some of the things they do - for the food, they now give out pre-made bags with two simple meals' worth in it, because when they just had the food out, she said some people 'grazed' and ate a lot (and took a lot with them when they left) and some people wound up not getting any. It was just one or two people, but it kind of spoiled the whole program...). We don't have a homeless shelter in town though hopefully that will change soon. And a couple of the services - a clothes closet, and one of the food banks - have closed down because of lack of funding and of volunteers. So things are tightening up for people in need, and that's unfortunate.
I know some people have objected to the library being used for "those people," but really? I'd rather people hang out somewhere safe (the librarians keep an eye on things; people causing trouble get the police called on them - they also keep a subscription to something known as "Jailbirds" so they can look up to be sure no new person who's shown up has a reputation for violence or being a sex offender) than having them hanging out on the street. Also, it IS the "community center," so it's not just a temple for books. Lots of libraries are like that now.
- I did wind up spending money on SmugMug's "ransom" of Flickr: they are going now to a format where they will either host 1000 photos for free, or will delete any over that number (I presume the oldest ones go first). Or you can pay. I kind of sighed and decided that this is the way things go, and anyway, if you're not paying you are the product, so....I had some 3000 photos on there and I don't want my blog full of (more - pre 2006 or so photos were hosted elsewhere) broken links and I didn't have the time to host the photos elsewhere or download them to my machine and reupload them to the blog, so. I'm not *real* happy about it, especially since I found out on Twitter first and not by an e-mail. (I have my personal e-mail linked to my account but I also have an old Yahoo mail, that I don't even remember the login for now - I think I have it written down somewhere, I hope I do - but they also promise a new way to login in the future so I hope I can just make a simple user name and password.
I guess I don't have too much of a problem with paying except (a) it was a rather abrupt thing and they did jack up the Pro rate and (b) the whole feeling of "nice photos you've got there; it would be a shame if anything happened to them" rather than a "let's work with each other on this" and maybe be more persuasive or have stepped levels of membership.
I guess I'm saying: it would have been nice to have more than 2 month's warning, to be told, "Hey, we're considering changes to how we host, can we get some input?" Then again: the rumor went out this week that Twitter was taking away the "like" button (the little heart) "to improve the interface" and it was met with confusion and derision (rightly so). Twitter seems not to investigate directed abuse and perhaps not even some cases of doxxing, but they don't want people to have a little heart to click?
I suppose it's used for "bad" things in some circles, but what I use the like for is:
- "I see your tweet but either don't have time to respond or have no better response than what you said"
- "I support you, I empathize with you" (Twitter maybe needs an "empathy" button. Maybe all social media does....Ravelry has "love" which kind of fills that role)
- "Your funny tweet made me laugh and I liked it"
- "I agree with you"
- "I get that you posted this specifically for my benefit" (I have a few mutuals who will post pictures they know I will find funny, or things about Ponies or cats or knitting or the authors I like...)
But yeah. Trying to "fix" twitter by taking away the like button seems like trying to fix a stalled car by stuffing a banana in the tailpipe.
I know there are people who couldn't easily pay the $50 a year and some folks are saying, "I'll just let them delete my photos then" and that's going to mean a lot of broken stuff on what small personal blogs still exist.
(And Blogger, don't you get any ideas!)
- I got paid yesterday, my pay went up a tiny amount (a couple hundred bucks), apparently thanks to some changes in how they cover our retirement fund. But I am going to have to be careful about funds and not spend excessively; I have been spending too much lately. (I don't consider "benevolence" like the check I do to the library as a form of spending; one of the reasons I need to limit my frivolous spending is so I have money to do that.I think it's important for me to do it. First, because I've been very, very blessed in my life, and I think I'm supposed to help spread that blessing around, but also: it's not good for a person to get everything they want and just live in a miasma of selfishness. And seeing as I was looking at Calico Critters dollhouses on Amazon again: better to just write a check for roughly that amount and give it to Robbie so she can direct it to help people the way it's most needed)
- Though I might still consider buying myself one wonderfully self-indulgent thing as a Christmas present to myself. I don't know what yet but I might know it when I see it. Or maybe I wait until after Christmas and buy myself a "January is kind of depressing" present - maybe the fancy new Folio edition of Middlemarch, or maybe a really nice dress, or maybe I DO get myself a dollhouse to set up and play with, though I don't know where I'd keep it. Or maybe I get a Bose CD player/clock alarm for my bedroom - the CD player in the giant, 20-year-old boombox I have cacked out recently and so I can only play CDs in my living room now. (That might make the most sense: buy a really nice and smaller one - I don't need big speakers or even necessarily a tape deck. But I would like good acoustics and a good brand that will be unlikely to croak on me in a few months....Audiophiles, any recommendations? I'd be happy to spend up to about $500 on this)
- One of my other weekend goals is to maybe finally finish "Not Okay Bot" - I have just a couple rounds of the body left, and then just the base and assembly to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment