The bland leading the bland: UPDATED

There was a link to an article, on another blog I read. I was struck by how spot on this is:

 

“The day cannot be far off, one imagines, when people will viscerally understand the danger to themselves of saying certain things on social media and will censor themselves automatically. If this continues long enough, certain things will not only become unsayable but unthinkable, for habit eventually is transformed into character. This is the whole point of political correctness: It aims at the most radical of dictatorships, that which requires the enforcement of no police because everyone is incapable of breaking the rules.”

 

The article is at https://www.takimag.com/article/the-bland-leading-the-bland/.

 

I read an article about Cuba that mentioned this same thing. People internalize these rules and restrictions, to the point where it does become unthinkable.

Update: I want to post this link as I think it’s important info: http://www.bookwormroom.com/2019/06/24/this-is-not-the-first-time-ravelry-has-banned-conservatives/

 

 

Where we went wrong

I started hanging out on the internet when I went back to college in 1995. I found the Knit List. It was wonderful! It was also my first experience with the mean girls gang. You would have these women insist that the list be run to suit them. They would complain and bitch about something. The people running the list would accommodate them, then they would find something else to complain about. It got old. I wound up starting my own website and my own mailing list. And complainers about my list were told they could start their own and run it any way they chose.

I hear that excuse from people that support the way Ravelry is going. But Ravelry is not a personal website. It is a business. And businesses have to play under different rules. Carriers, like your cell phone company, operate under a certain set of laws, because traffic just passes through them. Platforms operate under a different set as they monitor and restrict speech. Tech companies want it both ways. They want to restrict speech and be unregulated like a carrier. That needs to stop. We have Google taking down a video of how Google plans to stop someone like Donald Trump from ever running for President again. If you think this is a great idea, try reversing that where a conservative business plans to stop the run of a Democratic candidate. We can’t allow these companies to police themselves.

Let me make this plain as I can. You cannot slander and smear an entire group of people, just because you don’t like their politics. I have not seen a single instance of anyone on Ravelry that has been guilty of “white supremicist” behavior. No one, anywhere, has an example. It has all been guilt by association. Trump is supposed to be a white supremicist, based on biased and slanted stories from the main stream media. Therefore, you are guilty if you support that. This is wrong. Let me say it again, this is wrong and you should know that. Let’s stop pretending there are groups on Ravelry full of Storm Front supporters, If you have an example of it, fine. But you don’t. I am not on everything at Ravelry, but I do not see any political talk anywhere. I can see, just by description, which groups are full of social justice warriors. I avoid those groups. It’s the mean girls of the internet all over again, humorless scolds that want to tell you want to do and how to think. The fact that those groups exist doesn’t “trigger” me. I don’t require that they be purged. I just avoid them. The other side doesn’t feel that way. People must be brought into line or kicked off. The glee about this decision is sickening. People that have never interacted with me at all, encouraging me to leave Ravelry sooner rather than later. I’ve had people quote back the manifesto to me, as if it’s gospel. The people at Ravelry are lying. That document is to try and cover their asses legally. This is in fact a purge of anyone that doesn’t do what they say. Unrestricted speech for the Left, but no speech at all on the Right. Why would anyone want to stay under those terms?

I titled this “Where We Went Wrong”. People used to make private websites and run email lists. If you weren’t a techy, there were sites like Geocities that would make it easier to set up a website. You had forums like Delphi. All of these required effort, but it was your own space. You had some control over it. Social media promised that you didn’t have to do any work at all. But with social media, YOU are the product. Your information is used for marketing. You really don’t have an option to opt out. They can track your information way beyond your visit to their site. And social media has brought out the worst of the mean girl club. They are now basically online mobs. They don’t think twice about putting where you live online, pressuring the company you work at. Even the companies that created these social media sites have remarked on it.

We need to return to smaller, more manageable groups. We need our own places again. We don’t need some giant site like Ravelry. We need less unrestricted speech, not more censorship. We need places where we can discuss craft and put all political discussion aside. We need places where crafters come together. Ravelry is on its way to becoming a very ugly place, make no mistake about it.

The internet is full of dead links. Make Ravelry one of them.

Bite Me,Ravelry

I’ve received a 10 day suspension on Ravelry. My offense is calling BS on slandering people as “white supremists”. And it is in fact bullshit. Casey and company are liars. I suspect that they cribbed their little manifesto, with an eye towards California’s laws on the Internet. They claim this is not about purging conservatives. That is exactly what they are doing. And they are doing it in support of the Democratic party. They claim that they don’t want conservatives goaded into posting political items, which would result in a ban. That is not only what they want, it is exactly what they are working for. These people are not the gatekeepers of the craft community. And we cannot allow them to politicize our craft and profit from our participation.

If you are a vendor, I want you to know I am heartsick over this. You have your little business that you’ve put heart and soul into building. You know full well that the Internet mobs love nothing more than to shut your business down, should you get out of line. You would be wise to keep your head down, stay neutral and look for other places to advertise. We still buy patterns, yarns and other items and we want to support your business. I have some ideas on reaching the larger vendors, which I will share here in the next week.

If you are on Ravelry, it is time to leave. I know that you would like for this to blow over and continue enjoying the conversations over there. The site you knew is gone. They have temporarily shut down new members. I can assure you, from what I’ve seen on Twitter, that the site will be hit with a crop of social justice warriors, ready to support them. They don’t know how to knit and they don’t care anything about our crafts. It’s political and the site will become even more political over the next few weeks. If you continue to support Ravelry, you support libeling people over their political point of view. And do not think for a minute that the folks that run Ravelry give a damn about people of color or the LGBT community. They care about you only as long as you support their politics. Stray from the party line and you will be purged too.

Craft is the thing that we do when our lives are falling apart. It is what helps us hold it together when the money runs out, when a loved one is in the hospital, when our marriage fails or our children are in a mess. Craft is the thing we do when we celebrate. It is the baby sweater or the wedding shawl we make by hand. It is a way that we show people that we care about them. It is too important to allow people to politicize it. We should link arms and support each other and insist that all voices be heard. We should not be demonizing or purging people from our ranks. It is wrong and you know it.

I’ll be adding more to the site as I work on this. Feel free to contact me if you want to share your thoughts. I moderate comments, so don’t think that you will be able to slander me on my own site.

The internet is full of dead links. Make Ravelry one of them.

 

Ravelry

https://www.ravelry.com/content/no-trump

I am tired of businesses thinking they get a free pass to slander me. And I am extremely tired of tech companies censoring speech. I can’t tell you how angry this makes me. I have always felt that the knitting and spinning community could come together and share their knowledge, regardless of their political point of view. It seems that is no longer true. I got along without Ravelry for years and I can get along without them again. I would still like to support designers and businesses that are interested in my business. But I would suggest that they find other venues to advertise from.

 

Update

I think this is working again. I just wanted to talk about the new Ply magazine. The focus is supported spindles, which means all spindles. It’s just wonderful. I think there must be three or four articles on Jenkins spindles. There was a time when I subscribed to SpinOff two years at a time. I’d devour each new issue. They changed the format, so they didn’t feature the readers’ projects. They featured “experts” instead. And I lost interest. I subscribed this year, because they gave me a cheap price, but I’ve yet to see anything interesting. I’ve been buying up back issues of Ply too. To me, a good spinning magazine should make you pick up a spindle and start spinning. I’m having problems getting myself to stop. I’ve started taking a spindle outside with me, when I take the dogs out back. And I”m determined to finish off the East Friesian wool as I’d like to knit a sweater with it.

I have a new pulmonologist at OSHU. I like him and I probably spent close to an hour talking to him. My lungs are worse and we have to get rid of all the birds, including my chickens. We think we’ve found a relative of Lon’s that can take them in. We are working on shipping the cockatoo out first. It’s going to be hard for Lon as he really loves Dewey, the blue and gold. But bird fancier’s can cause enough damage that your lungs don’t function and that’s deadly. I’m on a high dose of prednisone and have felt great. It’s so nice to have good oxygen levels. I was really struggling when I was trying to stay off prednisone. He said it’s likely I’ll have to take it the rest of my life.

No real progress on the house. I’m going to try and start working on packing this weekend. I picked up a new chair:

I had been thinking about getting a wingback chair, for knitting. I just was taken by this chair. I could tell it still had the horsehair padding. The seat is worn but it’s still very solid. It is a heavy chair and handmade, from the looks of the carvings. When I went get it, I was set to try and dicker for a lower price. It was in the second story bedroom. To get it down, the woman had to lower it down a step, while I caught it from the bottom. There were about twelve steps. I decided I was just going to pay full price, as I couldn’t have done it on my own. I really like the chair. I’m trying not to buy a bunch of stuff, but of course, I keep buying stuff. I have too many things packed up that I could use and it’s taking way too long to finish up the house.

The grandson will be a year old next month. I have a baby sweater to knit and also planned to do a teddy bear. I haven’t been knitting a lot, as I have a pair of socks with commercial yarn going and the Perfect Process scarf, which is handspun. I want to knit handspun socks, but am waiting until I finish something else. I think I am going to enjoy my handspun sock project. And I have my first Bosworth spindle arriving this week! I love the new wheel and I have plans to use it for some big projects. But it is so nice to be using my spindles again. My shoulder muscles would cramp, because my oxygen levels were too low. Now that I’m back to normal, I can just keep going.

It looks like I will be going to Black Sheep and I can probably spend some time there. Last time I went, I just wasn’t up to walking around and couldn’t get Lon to do much either. I don’t know yet if he wants to go with me. He hasn’t been walking that well. I have one of those roller seats and am trying to get him to use it. I am going to start taking a few days off as I really could use the rest.

I am trying to come up with a way to keep track of my spinning projects. I’d like to start doing sample cards. I’ve picked up a few odds and ends to try out. I’d like to be more consistent with my spinning. It’s so easy to lose track of your project when you don’t finish it quickly.

Problems with WordPress

So far, it won’t let me post something new from the computer. Will be working on it. I’ve lost two posts so far.

 

Testing again.

Updates

 

Finally blocked the new handspun hap:

It may be a little small. I practically live in the Bartlett yarns hap. I just love the feel of that yarn and will likely make myself a second shawl. I just started spinning the roving I originally bought for the Hapalong, a shetland/mohair blend:

 

It’s nice stuff, almost drafts itself. I have also been working on a few spindle projects, taking a small break from knitting. Will likely jump back in on the Hap for Harriet project. I’m trying to sort out what project I’d like to start next. For now, I’m just trying to spin up some roughly DK weight yarn, since most of the haps use that weight. I have roving coming in for a try at a double marled yarn. I will be getting some new whorls for my Pipy, which should give the wheel more range. It’s fun to work through some of this fiber on the Pipy.

I am proud of my unruly Springer boys. We can’t teach Jake to shut up and Gary barks at everything across the street. I let them out back after a grocery shop and heard a chicken squawk. Walked to the side and saw both boys chasing my little red hen. I yelled “NO” at them and they backed off. Got her over by the chicken yard and was finally able to pick her up and put her inside the yard. The bottom dropped out of one of the nesting boxes on the side and she jumped out. I think I have it temporarily fixed. They like to sleep up there at night.

Still haven’t hemmed those skirts. I always put it off, but once I finally tackle it, it’s not that bad. I want to finish the Wards machine. We will be dropping it off in a couple of weeks. Need to make sure everything is still working okay (and see if I can get the other cams working correctly.) I’m going to print out the manual and service manual to take with me.

Not much new here

The surgery was successful on Lon’s eye. I don’t have any pictures as he looks like someone punched him in the eye. He said that he’s decided he doesn’t want any plastic surgery. Casey Institute is a great place. All of the staff were wonderful. And Dr. Steele called up a few hours after we got home, to make sure everything was okay. I didn’t really feel like I had any time off, since there were people in and out of the house three of the four days.

I am still working on the second shawl for Julie. The post office lost the first one. I was going to replicate it, but then decided that might be a mistake. They could still find the original. So I used a different yarn, in close to the same colors, same pattern. I ran out of two of the colors, so am waiting for more yarn this week. Meanwhile, I am working on a shawl for a co-worker. I really want to retire and I’d like to do something nice for her, when that happens. It’s been awhile since I used lace weight yarn! And I’m also still spinning up some Shetland roving. I haven’t blocked my handspun hap, but will post a picture of it, unblocked.

 

I managed to pay the property taxes on the house this week. That’s always a big deal for us. Still need to pay the taxes for the river place. And we are still waiting to hear if we are going to be selling that place. It’s so frustrating. The people that have been helping us are finding jobs. It’s getting harder to get anything done. If we had cash, we could pay to finish this place up.

Haven’t done any sewing but I really need to get at it this weekend. I have two skirts done that need to be hemmed and have the fastenings attached. And I really need new skirts. I may have to set aside my knitting for a day.

 

Finally

I have been a very busy knitter lately. I updated my politics free Spindlitis blog. This blog is not going to be politics free. Very troubled by the nonsense in the knitting community lately. I am a knitter and spinner and I like to discuss those activities with anyone that is interested. I reject the busy bodies of the internet, who feel they have the right to attack anyone when they are outraged for someone else.

Abby asked for a sewing machine, so that she can patch Quinn’s work pants. I didn’t take her seriously at first and gave away two perfectly good machines that would have done the trick. So I had to buy a machine for her. I considered giving her my Singer Fashionmate, but I am convinced no one will ever love the perfect stitches on that machine like I do. So, I found a Wards Signature.

The zigzag didn’t work, when I first started messing with it. I finally figured out how to use the settings for the built in cams and I oiled the hell out of it. It really needed the oil. It still needs a bit of work, but it’s not too bad for a $15 machine. It’s heavy and the only plastic parts seem to be the cams. It has a built in, four step buttonhole selector too. I picked up the service manual and found the owner’s manual so she will get both of those. I really need to do some sewing myself. I have two skirts that just need to be hemmed and I really need some new skirts.

 

I picked up another ThinkPad to use for my work machine. Just maxed out the RAM in it too. I like these old ThinkPads. They are easy to work on and solid. I put Linux Mint on this and it’s been working just fine. I did have to pick up a trackball. I like to use the track point on these computers. This one has a tendency to make the pointer swing back and forth. It was slowing me down too much. I just have to adjust to reaching for the trackball.

The hummingbirds have really appreciated having the feeder. I’ve never seen as many hummingbirds here, as I have this winter. When we sell the place, I plan to leave a feeder and instructions for the new owners. The birds do fine most of the year, but appreciate the extra food in the winter.

Wish I had more actual news to report. Work on the house is at a standstill. We are waiting to see if we’ve got a buyer for the river place. If we do, we can kick things in high gear and finish this house. Lon goes in to have the growth under his eye removed, towards the end of the month. I’m taking a couple of days off for it. The growth isn’t cancerous but he picks at it. He’ll have this done at OSHU and we both like his doctor. I’m trying to pack up the rest of the stuff in the office. I have been buying fleece and books. I’m tired of not being able to find things I need. And all the drawers in my desk have jammed,so I’ll try to deal with that this weekend.

Lolo is not fond of me spinning, but seems to be getting better at dealing with it.

And this is the latest picture of Abe. We’re at eight months now.

We survived the holidays!

We had a nice Christmas. I finished all of my Christmas knitting on time and the gifts seemed to be well received. Work progresses on the house. We are going to sand and refinish the floors, so I am emptying out my office. I’ve started a new spinning project, using my Pipy. I keep forgetting that it’s been fixed, so it’s nice to use it again.

Picture of Abraham:

Hansel is almost done:

Abraham in the baby sweater and hat that I knit for him:

And Gary looking well behaved

Not a very good Thanksgiving

We’ve survived it but it won’t go down in the books as one of my favorites. Lon put on water weight gain a couple of weeks ago. It was bad enough that shirts he regularly wears didn’t fit. I could not get him into the Emergency Room. We went to Vancouver Clinic, who would not let us see a doctor since he didn’t go to his primary care doctor there. (He did see two specialists at the clinic, but that doesn’t count.) His vitals were okay, so he made an appointment at another clinic. You have to understand that you don’t see a doctor at any of these. You see a physician’s assistant. The one at the new clinic was good. She requested blood work to check his kidneys and helped him get into see his cardiologist on Wednesday. The fun started when I dropped him off out front and the truck wouldn’t start. I called AAA while he was in the clinic. They were able to jump it and get it going. I waited outside with the truck running till he finished. They told him he has congestive heart failure. The good news is that all his other organs look fine. They put him on heavy duty diuretics to get the water gain off, which they estimate at over 30 pounds. It was interesting that they were concerned about the state of his lower legs. I asked them about this when we were there two years ago. All I got was a shrug. This time, they took pictures. Anyway the diuretics are helping and I think he is starting to feel better. He is staying close to the house until he finishes with the pills.

We were too burned out to shop on Wednesday, so I went to the store on Thursday. The longer I was there, the worse I felt. I didn’t get much and I definitely did not want to get a turkey. I still don’t feel like cooking. We both took naps last night. I spent the day working on a Christmas knitting project. (And I found a mistake in it this morning. I’m going to leave it as is.) We’ll go back to the new clinic on Tuesday and see how things are going.

Another drought between posts

It’s not intentional, but we have been making a push to finish up the house. I am so tired of dealing with this. I feel like I never have any time off. I tell myself that it has to be done, which would be easy enough to deal with, if the end was really in sight. So we’ll see. Meanwhile, I don’t sew, play my dulcimer or spin. I have been knitting a little and I do have a small amount of Christmas knitting ahead. That would be because knitting baby sweaters does not seem work.

I picked up a nice G4 Powerbook. I know that PPC Macs are obsolete, but this was one from the last of the Power PPCs. I maxed out the RAM and plan to put in a solid state drive to increase performance. It’s a little slow but not bad.

Will try and update again soon.

This month went by fast!

I really didn’t mean to be this long between posts. I managed to take a week’s vacation during the week we had mid 90s temperatures. And we had smoke from some wildfires up north, to make it even more unpleasant. I really didn’t get anything done. I do have two skirts put together that I need to hem. I gave away some machines during the Sew Purty workshop and am still happy they are gone. So far, I’ve managed to avoid looking at sewing machines. I am trying to convince my stepson’s girlfriend to take up sewing as a hobby. I think she might enjoy it, but I don’t really have the right machine for her. The Singer 237 would be great but I just can’t part with it. I’ll see what turns up.

We went to the Toledo Boat show. Got there late and I didn’t even make it over to where the boats were. It was smoky there as well. We just don’t seem to have a lot of interest in going anywhere these days. We are still trying to get some work done on the house and there are a few small things that have been finished up. It just never ends.

I am writing a column for Low End Macs about Palms. First column is  here. I have a second one almost ready to go. And I started a funky little website for my Palms at Pocket-retro.org. I didn’t want to bore folks here with my Palm chats. It was sort of interesting picking it back up, because my Palm was like a time capsule from 2008. I’ve brought it up to date, picked up maybe five more devices, but keep going back to the Zire I used to use. There seems to be a certain amount of nostalgia for them. To be honest, it’s a relief to be disconnected from the internet for awhile.

And, in the more things I am collecting category, I have another dulcimer! This one was $40, which is the main reason I decided to check it out. It turns out to be a kit from Dulcimer Shoppe, home of the McSpadden dulcimers (which are considered THE dulcimer to have). It’s a high end walnut plywood and was built in 1976. It’s really a nice instrument, although I don’t think it’s as nice as my Ron Gibson.

I am signed up for a workshop mid September with Stephen Seifert in Portland. He’s considered one of the best dulcimer players around and known as an excellent teacher. He does many of the videos for the online school I subscribe to, Dulcimer School.  So this will be a fun thing for me and something completely different. I just want to play well enough to amuse myself and Lon.

The weather is supposed to stay on the cool side and I just might take a little time to work on one of the sewing machines I haven’t messed with yet. I would like to see if the National Two Spool works. And I would like to spend a little time sewing with the Davis Vertical Feed. And then, the Necchi needs attention. I am taking Tuesday off next week, so maybe I will accomplish some of this during the long weekend.

Bag repair

I’m trying to sort out doing a repair on my very nice bag. The strap that is attached to the bag has torn. I’m considering adding a leather patch on the inside of the bag and sewing it back together. I also think vertical stitching, rather than horizontal, would make this stronger. I’m on vacation next week, so I guess I will find out which machine can handle leather.

 

Sew Purty Workshop

I’ll start with this, for anyone needing a sewing machine fix. I went to the Sew Purty workshop in Portland. Ray Elkins is a fun guy and I learned a lot. I took my White, aka the Hillbilly Handcrank, as it was the dirtiest machine I own. To prove that, here’s the starting pictures of the inside, showing the presser and needle bar.

 

When I had all these pieces cleaned, I had problems putting it back together. It was so clean that it didn’t resemble these pictures! Finally managed to get it all back together. I haven’t tried sewing with it yet, but will give it a try next week. Here’s the finished machine:

More pictures from the workshop:

I recommend the workshop. I wish it had been three days, as I would have liked a slower pace. If you are very experienced, you might not learn a lot. But if you’ve messed around with machines a bit, I think you’ll pick up some useful tips. I learned that my documentation of taking things apart could use some work! I got to see how to time a Singer (the White didn’t need to be timed). I won’t get a chance to really put this to work, due to moving, but I can at least clean off some of the surface grime. It’s a good thing, when you can learn how to keep these machines sewing for another hundred years.

 

Lots of new things

No new sewing machines though. First there is this:

Abraham Alexander Wells was born on July 3rd, 8 pounds and three ounces. Mom Abigail is doing fine, although a little punchy from lack of sleep when we saw her on the 4th. Picture of the proud daddy and granddaddy:

I was able to go to Black Sheep on Saturday. I don’t have a lot of stamina for things like this, so I didn’t make it out to see the animals. I do like the venue in Albany a lot better. I just hope they can keep this going. I picked up a Jenkins Aegean in Ambrosia Maple, a braid of targhee in the colorway Durango from Greenwood fibers, and a bit over two pounds of gotland fleece. It’s one of the things I find most frustrating, because I do enjoy fiber festivals. I just get so winded trying to walk around that it’s hard. I was looking for a vendor that has been attending for years, with these beautiful Icelandic pelts for sale. I could finally afford one, but they weren’t there. So I guess I’ll have to keep looking. Picture of the new spindle:

I bought an Aegean previously but I couldn’t get around the idea that it was heavier than the Egret. I do like this one. It’s a nice weight. I wasn’t sure if I’d like the Targhee. Last time I bought some, I had real problems finding the right spindle. It was just too bouncy and the red dye bleed out when you washed it. I never have that problem with Greenwood fibers. I have another braid I’d bought the week before, Falklands in persimmon, which I have been spinning on my Lark. I have decided that I am on Team Flats when it comes to Jenkins spindles. I had planned to pick up a Swan but I’ve found that I prefer the flat spindles, with the exceptions of my Delights.I haven’t been spinning a lot lately, so it’s nice to get back in the groove. I’ll wash up the fleece this weekend as we have some warm weather for a change.

Still trying to finish up the house. Want to get this on the market in August. We don’t want to be moving cross country during cold weather. Still waiting to see if we have our other place sold. We did have one weird thing happen. There was a place we were considering. It was an older house, built in the late 30s and vacant on acreage. I like the folks that are selling the place and thought we could make the house for for us. Well, the ad turned up with all the pictures of the house removed, so we contacted them. Turned out there was a nasty storm that came through. The lightning hit the tranformer box in the house and it caught fire. It was a total loss, although the foundation and outbuildings are still there. Really a shame. I see so many old houses that are modernized and I just don’t like it. I’d prefer to do the house to my own tastes. So we’ll keep looking.

Time for a cute cat picture:

Back in the day…..

This used to be my go-to toy. It’s my Palm Zire 71, purchased new. It has the neatest camera ever. You slide the front up and the camera lens is exposed. It took pictures just the right size for webpages and you could be pretty sneaky about taking a picture. I have a 2gb SD card that I backed up all my programs on, and saved some free books and an album of music. I had a prepaid phone at the time, one of the green screen kinds, so I didn’t have anything that was always connected to the internet.

My Palm was like a time capsule of 2008. I had it with me when Jeffrey went into the ICU. I did not have any way to charge it. My co-worker was supposed to bring the charging cradle and never did. It stayed dead until I was finally able to get back to work after Jeffrey died. It left me distrusting digital solutions and I made sure that I always had a paper backup of important phone numbers somewhere. I just put it away. And I moved on to smart phones. But I really don’t enjoy them very much. I do use them a lot for the internet. I picked up an iPhone SE as I don’t really care for the large screen phones. I’ve noticed that they’ve re-written iOS for the larger phones now and it’s getting harder to type accurately. I’d go with something else, but I’ve never cared for Android. I’ve got two Kindles and an Android tablet. I just am not impressed.

I have a couple of Tungstens I picked up second hand, an E and a C. They both work. They don’t have cameras. The C can connect to wifi but can only use WEP encryption. And it has a keyboard. I like Graffiti a lot and I’m fast. I have a program called Teal Script that will let you use old style Graffiti letters and you can train it to recognize exactly how you write. I haven’t really done anything with the Tungstens, but have charged up one of them sometimes. I didn’t have a good charger for the Zire or the E. I got the wild idea to get charging cables last week, just for fun. I got the Zire working, but needed to get the backup program off the card to reinstall everything.

And that lead to great fun. I have a Thinkpad that runs Linux. I’ve used Palms on Linux before, but couldn’t get the conduit to work. I have an HP running Windows 7. I installed the Palm Desktop, but the conduit was 32 bit. There is a 64 bit driver another company wrote, but I needed to track it down. So..I pulled out my iBook G4, with OS 10.4 installed. I installed Palm Desktop. And I was able to sync and get the backup program installed. It’s not pretty because the conduit crashes regularly. But it worked. And when it restored from backup, it was all there. My carefully worked out system of memos in Pedit and Memoleaf. My copy of Bejeweled still works (and I keep playing it just to be sure!) I have used a LOT of Palm software and I have registrations for the programs I used most. I reinstalled a couple of them. I especially wanted to use Teal Auto again. We want to track mileage on the truck. (I can do this in Quik Budget too, but Teal Auto has nicer reports.) I found a copy of Carla Emery’s Checklist for Homesteaders, which doesn’t seem to be online any more. (I haven’t checked archive.org for it.) It has been an interesting experience.

I’m in the process of archiving and purging a lot of the old stuff and adding new addresses and memos. I am carrying my iPhone and Palm. I’ve taken a few pictures with the Palm but they aren’t as high resolution as the iPhone. I transferred a few new pictures over to the Palm and they look great. I even picked up a second hand Zire as a backup. I think I’m going to keep using this. So here are a few thoughts: I like writing much better than using my fingers. I can be more precise and I think faster when I’m writing than when I am tapping things out on the iPhone. I’m a fast typist, but you don’t really type on a smart phone. Steve Jobs was wrong. Styluses work much better. The Palm software community was amazing and some of the programs still blow me away. I wish Pedit was on another platform. It is such a great text editor. One of the lessons I learned was to use text files. It’s a format that doesn’t change and can be read on any platform. Pedit even has a scripting language. I’ve forgotten most of what I learned, but still have a few scripts I can mess around with when I have more time.

I’m actually enjoying my time off the internet. If I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t sleep, I can play a quick game of Bejeweled now. And, I set an alarm on my Palm for my doctor’s appointment. I’d forgotten that my alarm tone is the Canteena music from the original Star Wars. I’m still carrying some paper with me and I am still using my iPhone. It’s just nice to have obsolete technology to mess around with for a change. And I like using my old iBook. I should upgrade it to OS 10.5 one of these days. The problem is that old technology that uses the internet is the tech that is obsolete first. When you can’t find a browser to use, it’s dead.

Lon’s birthday today! I hope he has many more.

One more cat post


 

The old guy is gone. We took him to the vets last night to be put down. This is a good vet. We asked him to check Jack out, just to be sure, and the vet agreed it was time. He could no longer hold his head up by himself and was having some problems breathing. He went quickly and peacefully. I will never forget the first time I saw him. It was at a natural pet food store. One of the clerks was carrying him around in her pocket. Someone had taken a litter of kittens, put them in a cat carrier and left them in the parking lot of an apartment. She’d found homes for the other kittens and needed one for Jack. I think he may have been four weeks old as he always acted as though I was his mom. He was intelligent and always took care of any of the new kittens. He was outside just once in his life, when we were in the trailer in Stabler. Jeffrey happened to go out and find him in front of the trailer, looking very scared and surrounded by goats and chickens. That was enough adventure for him.

I’ve had a lot of cats, some with great personalities. None of them were like Jack. Lon really helped me deal with this and feels bad about losing him too. I wish there was something else we could have done. Rest easy, binkie cat.

 

Not a sewing post

I still haven’t had a chance to try sewing with the new machine. And we are probably off to visit the stepson this weekend, so likely won’t get a chance this weekend either. I am dealing with this:

There are other pictures of Jack on this blog. We got him back when we bought the place on Fern Prairie. He must be 15 or so now. He is the best cat I’ve ever had, smart and affectionate. About a month ago, his back legs started getting weak. I made an appointment to get him to the vets, but the truck broke down that day. Was almost two weeks before we got him in. The vet thought it might be bone spurs and gave me some prednisone for him. He was doing okay then, not walking well, but could drag himself back on the bed. And he had enough bladder control that I could take him over to the cat box to do his business. He’d even wake me up at night for that.

He has unfortunately gotten worse. He has feeling in his legs, so he’s not paralyzed but he can’t walk and has problems holding himself upright. And he is incontinent. I’ve managed to make it so that he can still be up on the bed at night, but I am doing a lot of laundry for the towels to keep every thing dry. I suspect it is just a matter of time. So, not a lot of sewing going on. It can wait for a bit. My vet has been on vacation this week, so I’ll talk to him next week and see what he thinks.

All the other cats that came with me, when I moved here, are buried in the yard somewhere. Jeter, Chuck and Pete have been gone for awhile. I tell myself it would be easier on Jack if he didn’t have to make that move. If he was healthy, there’d be no question about it. But he’s old and starting to fail. I may have to leave him behind, with his old buddies. It will be hard.

Sewing attempted!

It’s a baby blanket I made, following Janet Szabo’s instructions. And I didn’t have a problem with the instructions. I had a problem getting the pieces cut square, which affected everything else. And the minky is a knit, which meant that I had to use an electric machine (I used the Viking). It wasn’t as  bad as I originally thought, but one edge in particular looked bad. I was ready to cut it up and resew the whole thing. Then I decided to try sewing a few lines around the edges. It looks better. I will try this next time with two pieces of flannel and make it a bit smaller. It’s cute material and certainly ready to handle baby puke and pee.

 

No new machines this week, which is a good thing. I still haven’t tried to sew with the new machine. We are supposed to do the yard sale this week, so I’ve been trying to see if I can come up with anything else to add to it. I just get burned out so easily. The truck died on us yesterday, so I had to reschedule my doctor’s appointment and an appointment at the vet’s for Jack. Jack’s back legs are weak and this started about a week ago. He’s an old cat and still managing to get around, but I hate to see him struggle. Will have to reschedule everything when we get the truck sorted out.

I ordered some beans, to be planted at the new place. I really am excited about the idea of being able to grow hot weather crops. I had no idea how tired I was of dealing with this climate, until I started thinking about growing  black eyed peas and watermelons. These are from Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center. I gave Quinn most of the seeds I’d bought for a planned move to the coast. I guess I’m not out that much if I never get a chance to plant these. I always buy seeds, but really can’t grow anything here. There’s the maple in the front yard and there are big evergreens blocking sun in the back yard. I hope this is our last summer here.

Cute doggie picture before I go. This is Gary.