I finished the first sock a month ago, and then the second took a while coming since I got a two week visitor and got a lot of work I had to finish up. But, I've finally managed to finish the second sock!

FInally I can see why socks are such great little projects. All together I think I finished the second sock in about 5 hours, since it's quite easy once you get the hang of it (but everything is, come to think of it). There is one small mistake on the first sock that you can't see unless it's pointed out to you, and for some reason the slipped stitches on the gusset on the second sock became very large on one side - things to keep in mind for the future, I guess.

Info:
Pattern: Roll Top Socks - note: I did not do the roll-part but started right on the k1,p1.
Needles: Susan Bates DPs, 5US
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug in now unknown colorway (I've lost the little info cards since the yarn has been in my stash for about 4 years now).

( Pictures! )

http://chavelaque.blogspot.com/2009/11/on-protests-and-publishing.html

And now, a conservative Christian group protests Luv Ya Bunches.

Of course, this was only to be expected; that's the way conservative Christians roll, and it's their absolute right to do so. But if you disagree with them -- as I do, as a Christian myself, a reader, and a human being -- then please think about this: This Christianist* organization is bringing negative economic pressure to bear by threatening to boycott an entire company based on one title. This hurts a lot of people -- my company**, sure, and all my authors, but also the authors from other companies who are represented in the Fairs, and their respective publishers.

But we readers can create positive economic pressure in a way that actually benefits the publishing industry and the authors we support. And that's by buying books with gay characters -- either the book in question if it's in a Fair, which will prove desire for such books outweighs the repressive effects of the Christianists, or other books in the bookstores, which does the same in the trade.*** I'm suggesting this because publishing is a business, and, as we all know from Capitalism 101, sales success speaks just as loudly as moral indignation in the business world -- even more loudly, in some ways, because it means consumers are literally putting their money where their mouths are. That's what this Christianist organization has done by threatening to withhold sales from the company simply because it has dared to list a book with lesbian moms. And that's what we fans of lesbian moms can do too, and counteract the organization's effects at the same time, by buying Wide Awake, or Absolutely Positively Not, or Absolutely Maybe, or Totally Joe, or Everywhere Babies (one of my personal favorite picture books ever), or Twelve Long Months, or many other wonderful titles.

If books with gay characters sell well, more writers will feel free to write them, it will be easier for editors to acquire and publish them, and there will be more of them in the world. But that responsibility for sales rests with readers and book-buyers as much as it does with publishers, to show that there's a demand for such characters against those who'd like to repress their very existence. If you care about this cause, then read the books, write the books, but please, also, buy the books and get other people to buy the books. Every book really does make a difference.

____________________________
* A term borrowed from Andrew Sullivan to identify people who use their Christian faith for a right-wing political agenda. See his explication of it here.
** Yes, this relates to a division of the company for which I work (not my division), and so the caveat in the sidebar of my blog applies here more than ever: All opinions expressed here are only my own, and should not be taken as the official views of said company. But I would feel the same way and say the same things if it were a different company.
*** Actually, this could also apply to books with black characters, or Native American characters, or differently abled characters, or any group whose existence is underrepresented or often challenged in literature and you would like to see more books with them. It is more Capitalism 101 to say that the business world loves success and tries to duplicate it endlessly -- witness the spate of paranormal romance titles in the wake of Twilight. Make a real success happen for a book you love, and more books like it will follow.

Our week or two of sun is gone. :( It was cloudy this morning, and then when I was following PMB through the halls at church (he is just a few months too young for the nursery, and he can't sit still in class with me), we stopped at the glass doors to watch the rain. Wow. It was raining so hard it was bouncing off the pavement, and going on in waves. Now it's dark and while not particularly cold (that comes on Thursday), it looks like mid-November. So we ate off our Christmas dishes for dinner. Gotta use them sometime, right?

We gave PMB a haircut. I only meant to trim the back and take some off the sides, but he wouldn't sit still for the scissors so we used the clippers. Um. It's a bit...short. Too much off the front. He looks like a convict now, poor guy! And it's lighter underneath. This happened with Oldest Son at this same age--we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa and his uncle gave him a quick buzz with the clippers. I'm fairly certain that if you took the background away, the two would now be indistinguishable in photos. Well, hair grows back, right?

The resident of the back bedroom had to play at the football playoff game last night in Waco and so did not return to the school until the wee hours of Sunday morning. We all decided to sleep in and then have an early b-day celebration for my better half since his bday always falls when I am at NCTE. Then, it was serious napping. Needless to say, not much else was accomplished.

I did, however, read an interesting piece in the NYT about teachers scoring $$$ for sharing lessons online. There was some question as to whether or not this was kosher. If plans were written using school district resources and materials, it seemed to be the conclusion that the plans belonged to the district and not the teacher. In some ways, we are confronting some of this at the university level. For instance, I have taught two online classes and conducted two webinars for professional organizations with the blessings/permission of my employer. The question remains, though, who owns these materials? Early contracts awarded "custody" to the professional organizations. I refused to sign them as I consider this work my own intellectual property. I do not want to sign away the rights to present these same ideas in workshops and articles.

So, what is the ethical stance here? We are entering some gray areas in the days of online instructional environments.

I'm really lucky to live near a community center with an open pottery lab. Here are some of the pots I've made recently.



I like how the colors came out on this one. The blue sorta sneaks around inside the green.

The others did not come out as well. I think there was something wrong with the white glaze that day.

( More pottery )

I made these awhile back, posting now.


( Garden Divas )

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1790000379/post/230050423.html?nid=3713

"Make a World : the Film" Teaser from makeaworldfilm on Vimeo.

A show of hands. How many of you knew that there was a document...

Every year my one friend rotates her Christmas decorations between a Snowman Christmas, Santa Christmas, and Penguin Christmas. She has a lot of time on her hands, lol. This year is a Snowman Christmas, so for her birthday in October I made her the snowman off of the Lion Brand website.

( Snowman )

For Christmas I decided to make her the penguin and santa off of the Lion website, too, so she has a complete set.

( Penquin and Santa )

Now I just have to wait to give them to her. That's the hardest part, lol!







cross-posted to weloveamigurumi & crochetcrochet
also at my Ravelry page

PRECIOUS is receiving accolades from every corner, so I'll just add my little amen.

Yes, the story plunges you into the darkest corners of the human condition, and the previews alone may dissuade those who don't want to pay $9.50 for a seemingly "depressing" movie. But my advice? Lay that money down. Your heart will feel at times like it's being shredded into a million tiny pieces, like the Kleenex you brought into the theater "just in case." But ultimately, this is an uplifting story, in which the main character is a shining light among the shadows. If you're brave enough to follow her story, I promise you'll walk out of the theater with a renewed sense of optimism.

A handful of critics have suggested that only a small segment of the population will relate to the main character, whose life hangs by a precarious thread at the margins of society. I dispute that notion entirely. Many of us have endured--hopefully, transcended--painful situations. And though the details are unique, I think the themes are universal. We gravitate toward stories that demonstrate the resilience of the human spirit, so it isn't for naught that the movie is dedicated to "Precious girls everywhere."

I was deeply moved at many points in the movie, but I keep coming back to one scene in particular. Precious is offered a spot in the Each One Teach One program, and on the first day of class, the teacher asks everyone to state their name, favorite color, and an accomplishment they're proud of. Precious refuses to participate. But after some gentle prodding by the teacher, she states her full name, says she likes yellow, and admits that she can cook.

Her eyes fly open, as if she's surprised at the sound of her own voice. "I ain't never talked in class before," she says.

"How does it make you feel?" the teacher asks.

"Here," Precious says. "I feel here."

I hear you, Precious, I hear you.

PHILADELPHIA — A suburban swim club accused of discrimination last summer after revoking the memberships of mostly black and Hispanic children plans to declare bankruptcy, a newspaper reported Saturday.

Valley Swim Club president John Duesler sent an e-mail to club "friends and families" Friday saying the board of directors had voted to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy this week, The Philadelphia Daily News reported.

Duesler wrote in the e-mail that many would blame the bankruptcy on legal proceedings and negative media exposure, the newspaper said. But, he said, "the truth is that the club has struggled to stay out of the red for at least the last decade" and owes more than $100,000 in operational expenses and legal fees, the newspaper reported.

Duesler declined to comment to The Associated Press on Saturday.

Members "are all tired and beaten down and just sickened by how our club has been improperly portrayed," he said, according to the Daily News. "After speaking to many members, my sense is that mostly everyone wants to move on."

( Read more... )

Source

I know it’s unorthodox, but I am going to add one final mini-post on an issue that won’t let go of me. Debbie Reese said, “There are some things that I think non-Native writers ought to stay away from: religion, spirituality, worship.”

She also said something very provocative: “Most Native writers don't even put that in their books. Why do non-Native writers feel the need to do it?”

The question you, as a non-Native writer, should ask yourself is this: why don’t Native writers put overt references to Native religion, spirituality and worship in their books? Take a minute to think about it. This is important.

Okay. Time's up. Let’s be totally honest here. We all know that if we as writers are, say, Christian, it is not okay to preach in our books, not even obliquely. It’s not even okay to mention religion except in passing, very casually, in a nondenominational sort of way. Unless of course it’s a problem novel in which religion is the problem. These are the rules and we all know that if we don’t follow the rules we will not sell our books, except maybe to Christian niche publishers.

In fact, what Debbie said about Native writers not writing about their religious beliefs is also true for most Christian writers—writers like Katherine Patterson, for example, or Madeline L’Engle. They do not take us into their inner sanctuary of their own spiritual world. CS Lewis has been soundly criticized for sliding his Christianity in sideways.

So now, in the non-Native context, ask yourself the same question again: why don’t Christian writers put overt references to Christian religion, spirituality, and worship in their books? Sure it is partially market driven, but isn’t it also a question of—what shall we call it—respect? Etiquette? It’s not acceptable. We all understand this.

We all also know, again, being totally honest, that if we want to write a book that celebrates “Native American” spirituality we are free to take it as far as we can. Make it a beautiful picture book full of dances and sacred chants and let it wear its ideology in bright colors right up front. If it is well written, publishers will welcome it with open arms. No one will cry foul play, quit preaching at my kid—no one except the most fundamentalist parent, who will ask that it be banned for promoting witch craft—but we all know that those guys are just plain crazy, right?

Actually, I would submit to you that the fundamentalist parent is the only one who believes in the reality of Native spirituality because he thinks it could have power over his kid—a negative power, mind you, but power none-the-less. The fundamentalist is like the early missionaries in this part of the world who convinced people that Eskimo dancing was evil, which they did because they knew the dancing had power, spiritual power of a distinctly non-Christian flavor. The rest of the modern day folks think it’s okay to brandish this Native spirituality in books because it isn’t really real Religion. Not with a capital R. It has something to “teach us,” in a new-age sort of way, but we aren’t being be asked to convert. No one will come knocking on our door in a headdress. The shaman isn’t going to really leave his body and fly to the moon while the kids are watching. This stuff is not real. It’s a cultural relic. That, it seems to me, is the underlying assumption here (correct me if I am wrong.) Think about what this means. It’s another kind of stereotyping, isn’t it? A really ugly kind.

I don’t agree with Debbie about staying away from spirituality in writing about Native peoples or any people. Spirituality is a large part of that which makes us human. We can’t write living, breathing, human beings if we amputate their spiritual natures. I can’t write a book about the Inupiat that refuses to allow the reader to see them dancing, where appropriate (and I didn’t write that kind of book when I wrote Blessing’s Bead.) And I can’t write a book that refuses to acknowledge that whaling and the whale are at the spiritual core of what it means to be Inupiaq (and I didn’t write that kind of book when I wrote Whale Snow.) But the point is, I think, that if your character has a specific spiritual belief, it’s part of who they are. You don’t have to lecture about it until everyone suddenly remembers they have someplace else to be. If you are writing about a character who has a deeply felt spiritual belief—one that you understand completely, whether or not you yourself share it—the spiritually will come out in your writing, through your character and the way he or she acts. You don’t have to follow him into the synagogue or the sanctuary or the kiva and explain everything he’s doing and why he is doing it. That’s rude and intrusive and probably really boring for the reader. You don’t have to take it upon yourself to give your reader a theology lesson—you don’t have to say, “and now Cindy was Christian and she knew that in order to get to Heaven she had to believe in Jesus Christ as her one true savior and say her prayers at night…” That’s preaching. If you understand them well, your characters' spiritually will come out in how they act, what they do, what they value--and it will come out whether you think about it consciously or not.

You can substitute any religion in the above sentence and comes across as either preachy or superficial and yet this is what a lot of people do when they write Native books. They think they have to explain it, like tour guides. The problem with this, other than the fact that it makes for bad writing, is that most of the people writing this stuff do not understand the this brand of spirituality on the deep wordless level where authentic spirituality resides and the way it is written is thus often insulting to those who do.

That’s my take.

Universal changed "Couples Retreat" marketing material for the film's UK release, and removed the black actors from both the poster's photo and the list of stars typed out.

The film, which features four couples who go on vacation together, costars Faizon Love as a divorced man who takes his new girlfriend along, played by Kali Hawk.

Below are the UK (left) and the US (right) poster.




The Mail on Sunday reports:

The studio said it regretted causing offense and has abandoned plans to use the revised poster in other countries... A Universal spokesman said the revised advert aimed 'to simplify the poster to actors who are most recognizable in international markets'.

Yeah, right...

As reported earlier on this blog, the FTC seems to have reconsidered its original position that online book reviewers are endorsers. However, it is my understanding that individual bloggers who are not book reviewers per se are still subject to the FTC Guides.

As an individual blogger with friends and business connections in the publishing world, today I have posted the disclosure policy for my blog. I have done so in an effort to comply with the FTC Guides, as well as for the general benefit of my blog readers. I plan to update my policy if and when it becomes necessary, and I have provided a link to it in the sidebar of my blog.

And so, with my next entry, we'll get back to the craft of writing!

A few weeks ago, I bought some very ugly, dirty chairs from the Salvation Army with the intention of putting them in my small-ish kitchen. They were $12 for the pair, which, frankly, I felt to be quite steep. Look how ugly and filthy! Vinyl cushions! Ew. But they were nice and sturdy, and I liked the metal frame, so I took them home to fix them up.



( Want to see the makeover? )

As of November 15, 2009

In accordance with the FTC Guides (16 CFR 255), I am posting this disclosure policy for my blog.

On this blog, I discuss writing and books—my own and other people’s. I express my opinions in the hopes that other people can relate, or to open up discussion about topics I consider interesting.

When I see a book that I’d like to recommend for one reason or another, I tag it as a “recommended read.” Starting December 1, 2009, I will disclose the sources of any new “recommended reads” to the best of my ability. (In some cases, such as for books that I’ve owned for years, I may not be able to remember where I first got the book.)

I am a member of the following communities of debut authors: Debut2009, Class of 2k9, Tenners, and Class of 2k10. Because I don’t feel comfortable rating or formally reviewing the debut works of these authors, I have not made these “recommended reads.” Rather, I have simply announced the launches of the books. If I have read an advance copy of the book by the time of its launch, I sometimes include some of my own observations about the book. All 2009 debut authors were offered the chance to do a blog interview with me; I posted interviews with those who responded. I have previously disclosed this “launch” policy on my blog, and I am reiterating it here.

I have an agency contract with Curtis Brown and a book contract with Penguin Publishers. I have previously disclosed that information on this blog and I am reiterating it here. I may discuss and/or recommend books by authors who are also under contract with my agency and/or publisher, or who have been under contract with them at some time in their careers, and who may or may not still be receiving royalties in connection with those contracts. I may or may not be aware of every author’s connection with my agency and/or publisher.

To date, I have never been paid for what I write in this blog. I do not receive “click-through” compensation for any link. Before I had a paid account with LiveJournal, LiveJournal posted ads on my blog page; these ads were not selected by me. I currently have a paid account that does not display ads.

I occasionally give away copies of other people’s books, or items such as bookmarks. I may in the future give away finished copies of my own books. I consider the books to be gifts, not items requiring any payment in exchange. I consider items such as bookmarks to be of negligible monetary value and I expect nothing in return.

A note to reviewers: If you received an ARC from me or on my behalf, I do not consider that compensation for which I am owed something in exchange. You are free to review or not review the ARC, and to state your honest opinion of my work. My general policy is not to comment publicly on individual reviews.

Happy Sunday!

I cannot believe it is already November 15th. There’s, like, only a little over a month left until Christmas.

Yesterday when The Boy and I went to Borders, they were selling sparkly pink Christmas trees (fake, of course.) They looked like this:





The Boy looked at me and said, “Do you want to get it?” That is why I love him. What other guy would actually SUGGEST getting a sparkly pink tree just because he knows you love all things pink and sparkly? But that tree was a little too much even for me. Trees might be the only things that are better off green than pink, IMO.

So we left it. I think they also had purple and yellow and other colors, too, but they were all in boxes. The pink was the only one on display.

Also, if you are looking for a fab Christmas gift, I recommend this:



Okay, so .. confession time. I never really GOT the whole Twilight thing. I read the first one, and I liked it, and then I started the second and ..well, I’ll finish it someday. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the books, I just didn’t know why everyone was all, OMG, EDWARD, OMG, I’M GOING TO DIE I LOVE YOU SO MUCH OMG.

But Hush, Hush. OMG, PATCH, OMG, I’M GOING TO DIE I LOVE YOU SO MUCH OMG. I mean, not really, of course. Because, haha, people my age don’t talk that way. They also don’t buy pink sparkly trees. (But seriously, Patch, OMG.)

You MUST buy this book. It is suspenseful. It is sexy. It has one of the best teen romances I’ve read…well, ever. It is dark and chilling and carefully plotted with amazing pacing and the chemistry between Patch and Nora is just… yeah. The thing is, there is no sex anywhere in the book. And yet it is VERY HOT somehow. Becca Fitzpatrick, how did you do this?

Anyway, I loved it. You should all read it. And buy it as a Christmas gift for someone.

You should do it now, because I just looked it up and there are only 40 days, 12 hours, 31 minutes, and 8 seconds left to do Christmas shopping. Yikes! That doesn’t seem long at all.

More later,
xx

The last time I threw up was around 5 or 6am. Today. I am afraid of throwing up. So getting a stomach bug is great.

Time before that was June of 2000. I was hoping to at least get an even 10 years.

Can I eat some JellO now?

Visit the Debs and win!!!