Would you believe....?

Would you believe that in my thirty something years of crocheting (learned when I was 6) that I've never done a ripple afghan?

I finally made one. Found the pattern on the internet several years ago and printed it out. This was before I started to save the links to patterns in the footer of my printouts, so I'm not sure where I got this one. As soon as I find the original website that I got it from I'll properly credit the designer for it.

Here are some pictures

It only took me about a week or so to make this afghan. I started a week ago thursday, finished the crocheting on friday morning, and did the tail weaving last night/this morning. (darn insomnia! was up till 3am)

I thought the pattern was pretty nice, I followed the pattern exactly how the designer wrote it out (I probably did more rows than she suggested). My only problem is that I think it's too narrow. Once I figure out how many extra chains to do to make it bigger, I'll probably do another one with this pattern. It was pretty fun to do.

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I've probably mentioned once or twice how impressed I was with the Rainbow Bridge when TinyMonsters died in March. The box that they put his cremains in is really very pretty. Morbid as it may seem, I thought I'd show you why I'm so impressed with the Rainbow Bridge that's here in Omaha. (sorry if anyone thinks it's morbid)

I resized the picture so it's not as huge as it was, so you might not be able to read Tiny's name on the nameplate, but you can at least see the detail in the wood. It looks so much better than I thought it was going to. I had an image in my head that it was going to be pine wood and shaped like a cigar box or something. Never expected it to look this good.

Edited to add: For some reason, Photobucket doesnt always show the resized pictures after I've resized them...not sure if my browser's cache is wonky or if the resize didnt take or something. Sorry if any of the pictures are massive, I swear I resized them!

I cant believe I figured it out...sorta...

I was just playing around with my desktop computer that I've had a couple of years. It has some features on it that I've never used before. Well, tonight, I got curious to see how they worked. Specifically the video capture program.

I have an ancient video camera. I've had it about 10 or 11yrs. It uses those little mini video tapes.

I had some video of TinyMonsters, my dog that passed away in March, so I decided to see if I could transfer it from the videotape onto my computer.

Would you believe that I did it without even using any written directions? I not only got it copied to my computer, I also burned it to DVD!

My mom was thrilled. She misses Tiny and thought it was cool to be able to see him again. Hopefully I have more tape of him!

I just sat for an hour watching a videotape that my late Uncle Donny had recorded when he took my aunt and my cousins on a vacation to Pennsylvania. I was watching it because I was transferring it to the computer.

For some reason the picture I transferred is all black. (huh?!?) I've got audio, but no video. Weird thing is, the Preview screen I had up while transferring the tape had picture. I dont get it. I guess I have to fiddle with it for a bit.

If I manage to get it successfully transferred, I'm going to put it on a dvd and give it to my aunt. Not sure she'll want to watch it, it's got both of her parents on it (they've both passed away) and it has my uncle's voice on it. If she doesnt watch it right away, at least I've preserved the video. My uncle would have thought this was so cool. He passed away just before DVD technology became popular. He would have loved this stuff...I think he was more into gadgets and technology than me or my dad are.

If this doesnt work with my computer, I might attempt to record the video onto my Tivo and transfer it to DVD with the Tivo's built in dvd burner. (again, my uncle would have loved this stuff)

Yoric needs modeling lessons...

I made another hat...the picture kind of sucks, but you can at least get an idea of what it looks like. It's the same pattern that I used for the other hat. I didnt put any embellishments on it. I started to, but it looked stupid, so I just decided to leave the hat plain.

This hat is also going to my cousin's daughter.

Alas...poor Yoric doesnt make a good model, does he?

After about two and a half months of just sitting around, crocheting and then frogging everything I make, I've actually managed to finish something. I've been in such a crochet slump, and my eye being all wonky hasnt helped me much. At last I've finished something.

You'll have to forgive my model, Yoric, he wasnt really thrilled at having to do a photoshoot tonight.

I got the pattern for the hat at this site http://webpages.charter.net/basheera/rosehat.html

I didnt like the flower on the original pattern, so I came up with my own. I also changed the size of the hook. (I used an H) because my wonky eye didnt like the smaller hook.

Maybe now that I've actually finished something, I'll be able to decide on an afghan pattern now. It's been a while since I made an afghan.

I'll be giving the red hat to my cousin's daughter. My aunt Jan asked me to make some hats for her grandaughter (she likes to play dress up and LOVES hats) I'll probably make up a couple more for her.

edited to add: I tried to resize the pictures in Photobucket...they're showing up resized there, but in my blog, they're ginormous. Either my browser's cache is not refreshing, or the Blogger Gremlins are screwing around with things...

Now I've done it...

I guess I can consider myself a crocheter AND a knitter now.

Since I hurt my eye in late august (right after I learned to knit) I hadnt really wanted to pick up any crochet hooks or knitting needles. About a week or two ago, my eye had finally improved (or I got used to it) to the point where I could crochet comfortably. I bought some red yarn to make a new afghan, and then couldnt decide what to crochet. I guess even after having a near two month vacation from crocheting, I was still in a crochet slump. So over the weekend, bored as heck, I picked up the knitting needles and one of my larger skeins of scrap yarn. I dont like doing a regular cast on, so I chained 40 stitches on my afghan hook, did the Tunisian crochet cast-on, and then transferred that to my knitting needles and started to knit from there.

So far I've been knitting for 5 days straight. I even knitted in public yesterday when I took my dad to the eye doctor! (first time I've ever knitted in public)

It's kind of weird. I've been carrying around my first real knitting project everywhere I go. It's a scarf, being done in a green yarn (Red Heart, Medium Thyme...I think). I'm a little less then half finished with it. (started saturday evening)

I apparently knit just a teeny bit slower than I crochet (which is fairly quickly!)

So far I really am only doing one stitch (as far as I know) and I'm not doing anything terribly exciting. It is kind of neat to be able to do another yarn craft.

I have been crocheting some too. I started a rectangle granny afghan...with the red yarn I bought last week. It's probably going to end up being a xmas afghan. I have some nice green yarn that looks good with it.

Some moron with a can of spray paint has tagged a trailer that is in the field behind my house. The field is owned by the construction company that built our house. They're not planning on builing on it anytime soon, but they've been keeping that trailer back there. I cant see the trailer from my house, but when you leave our neighborhood, it's very obvious. This is the second time time the trailer has been tagged. It's ugly, and I cant quite tell what it says. Hopefully it wont sit there for 5 months before they paint over it like the last time.

This is just a test...

Having some serious problems with posting tonight...just testing to see if I can get blogger to post something.

edited to add:
What the hell?? This message posted, but the one that wouldnt post earlier has now posted itself 3 times...

ARGH!!!

Anyone have any suggestions for good bloghosting sites?

Just to prove I can do it...

Ok, so I might have mentioned a couple of times that I'd finally figured out how to knit...so here's the proof.

I'm still having problems casting on...Red Heart yarn has a nasty habit of untwisting itself as I'm casting on, and I really hate that. My solution to the casting on problem is to take an afghan hook and to do a Tunisian crochet cast on. Then transfer the yarn from the afghan hook to the knitting needles. I like the edge that cast on gives. Maybe some day I'll actually be able to knit something more than swatches.

I'm not really making anything with this. It's basically just a swatch. I know I have a few issues with gauge, my fingers hurt when I knit and the yarn gets really tight around the needles. So I'm just using up some of my scrap yarn practicing.

My dad (the resident knitter here) looked at my swatch and he said it looks pretty good, except for it's pulling in a bit the further I knit. We're both pretty sure that's being caused by my gauge. I know I'm pulling a little too tightly on the yarn. I dont have this problem when I crochet. I guess I'll just have to keep practicing.

I remember when I was learning to crochet (a long time ago in a galaxy far far away) I crocheted very tightly. I dont know what I did to fix that other than getting more confidence in the way I held my hook, and practice.

It is kind of fun to learn something new...and it gives me more excuses to go to the yarn store.

we have improvement!!!! (yay!!!)

I am so excited right now!

My wonky left eye has been steadily getting better since friday night. Friday morning and afternoon, my good eye (the right eye) was hurting and the eyelid kept twitching.

So, naturally I panicked. I was worried that whatever fubar-ed my left eye was making it's move on the right eye. Called the eye doctor. He was out (naturally), but luckily one of the other opthamologists was in the office and could take me that afternoon. So, I went in and he checked both eyes. Said that nothing was wrong with the right eye other than maybe a little eyestrain and said the pain was probably from that or may have had some leftover pain from a migraine I had the day before. He didnt even put drops in my eyes. I guess he was checking my pupil responses. My bad eye had an "afferent pupillary defect", which means that it wasnt responding normally to light.

So, he said to just rest my eyes and sent me home. That night and saturday morning and afternoon, my eye started flip flopping back and forth between crappy vision and really really really crappy vision.

Sunday I went to the Lincoln airshow with some friends to see the Blue Angels. Got to the airshow and started thinking it was a big mistake to go to an airshow on a sunny day with optic neuritis. My glasses have tint in them, but it was not up to the job. So I bought some of the overpriced clip-on sunglasses they had there. That helped so much. I was able to enjoy (and see) the Blue Angels.

Woke up monday, vision was less fuzzy.

Got up this morning to take my dad to his eye surgery (we've been the House Of The Half-Blind this past month) and my vision was a lot clearer. It's not normal yet, and some colors (green and red) still look weird, but I can see pretty good now with that eye. I even crocheted and knitted some tonight. I think I forgot how to knit...mostly I couldnt remember how to cast on in a way that my yarn doesnt split apart, but at least I can see what I'm doing now.

Now I can finish the pineapple shawl I crocheted with one eye closed when this all started. I finished crocheting it, but I couldnt see well enough to weave the yarn ends in. Gonna go finish that now. whoohoo! I was having serious yarn/crochet withdrawal.

Hmmm...I wonder if we're out of the drought now?

It's been an interesting evening meteorlogically. We had a tornado warning around 830 or 9pm. (that was fun) With all the required lightning, thunder and hailstones. (the tornado stayed a little south of my house. It was actually right over the area of my OLD house. I havent seen any news reports of damage, but there was apparently a LOT of rain. The weatherguy said that some manhole covers were blown off by the rainwater in some areas.

After that storm, my dad and I went out to pick up some photographs he had printed at Walgreens...on the way home, the next storm decided to hit.

Ever seen Titanic? The scene where Jack and Rose are running thru the corridor towards the little kid and his grandfather and the water is chasing them down the corridor...that's about what the streets looked like tonight, but with a lot more water.

I thought we were going to need pontoons on the side of my dad's Rav4. Halfway home, the hail started. It wasnt bad...wasnt big, and stopped about 10 seconds after it started...and then the rain got worse.

We were getting close to our house, came around the curve where the nimrod neighbors have to always park their cars and some asshat was coming towards us, VERY FAST, and didnt even wait for us to get past the cars that were on the side of the street. I'm sure that in the morning, if I go and look there will be tire tracks from that guy's car on the neighbors front lawns. Who drives 60mph IN A MONSOON on a street that curves like the letter "S"?????

After that we just had to float to the front of our house, drive out of the river that our street had become (gotta love fulltime 4wheel drive!) and made it into the garage. Just before the next batch of hail hit.

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I may have mentioned before that I've had a problem with my vision. Well. I went to the eye doctor the other day for him to check the progress of the problem. He confirmed that it's optic neuritis. (inflammation of the optic nerve) and he agreed with the ancient neurologist I saw earlier this month that it was migraine induced optic neuritis. This time he told me the optic nerve was swollen (it wasnt when he looked the first time last month) but said that was normal.

Told me that he could give me steroids to make it heal quicker, but that the steroids come with all sorts of icky side effects and that it's probably best to just wait for it to heal. As much as I'd love to have this heal quicker, I agreed with him that I didnt want the steroids. So, now I may have wonky vision for the next 2 to 3 months. (why do the estimates for recovery keep getting longer???)

Yay...I might get my vision back for Christmas.

It's not the fuzzy, dim vision in my left eye that's bugging me so much as the mild loss of some of my color vision. As you can tell from the title of my blog, I love yarn, and from most of the content of my blog, I love to crochet. It's pretty freaking boring to crochet when one of your eyes cant see some colors very well. Sure I could close that eye and just use the one good one, but things look weird. I never understood what it meant to lose your depth perception or color vision until this happened. Believe me, I'd rather lose my hearing than my vision. I am so hoping that when my eye heals (in 2 or 3 months...argh!) that my color vision in my left eye comes back with it.

I have a cabinet full of all sorts of different colored yarns, and none of them look appealing to me right now. It's really messing up my love of crochet. I really want to make something, but I lose interest after the first few rows.

I cant wait for my eye to heal.

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At least I can still read, and when I need to rest my eyes but I still want to read, I discovered a way to still read. My dad bought me a computer program called Text Aloud. It comes with realistic sounding computer-generated voices. I got it yesterday, and I just love it. It reads text on the computer to me. I can copy fan fiction stories to the program for it to read, or I can go to Project Guttenberg and download a book to the program. It'll read whatever text I put into it. It's probably one of the coolest programs I've ever had loaded into a computer.

The thing I like about the program is that I can turn the text into an audio Mp3 and then transfer that into an iPod or some other mp3 device. I can even burn it into a CD if I want to, altho the size of the file kind of limits you to what you can put onto a cd. I could end up using lots of disks if I do that.

I dont have an Mp3 player (yet) and saving the stories to a CD to play on a car stereo is ok, but all I've done so far is save some stories to Mp3 format so that I can just play them off of my computer. If I get an iPod for Christmas (hint, hint) this program will come in handy.

Five Years.

Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of September 11th. Hard to believe it's been 5yrs already.

Not too long after 9-11 I bought a bracelet...a cheap little silver metal bracelet that had the name of a firefighter who died on 9-11 engraved on it.

That firefighter's name was George DiPasquale (Manhattan Ladder Co 2)

I cant find my bracelet, so I cant wear it tomorrow like I wanted to, but I can tell people who read my blog to think about FF DiPasquale and his co-workers and everyone else who died that day.

I didnt know him, only know who he was because his name was the one that was engraved on the bracelet I bought. What I know about him is what I've Googled. He was 33, married, had a daughter named Rose and was called "Holy Man" because of his committment to religion, and he died in the Word Trade Center collapse along with seven other members from his ladder company.

So, everyone, think of Firefighter DiPasquale at least once tomorrow.

I wish I could find that bracelet.

Picture below is the patch firefighters in Manhattan Ladder Co 2 wear.

Happy Labor Day

It's been a looooong two weeks. My eye has pretty much been fubar for about two weeks, and I've had a headache for nearly 3 weeks. My dad got me some Excedrine Migraine last night that I took this afternoon that seemed to actually help. It's a mixture of Tyelenol, Excedrin (aspirin) and caffeine. Two Excedrine Migraine pills have about as much caffeine in them as a cup of coffee.

I ended up only taking one of them, since I havent really had any caffeine for the past two weeks. (been trying to rule out caffeine as a migraine trigger) It seemed to work...I think.

I think my eye might be starting to heal. I dont have the massive blind spot that was obscuring the lower half of my vision when this first started out. My vision is now kind of fuzzy looking...like trying to look thru a fogged over muddy window. I actually drove my car today. First time in two weeks. I only drove me and my parents to a restaurant that's just down the street, so it wasnt very far, and I didnt really have to go out into busy traffic to get there. I think tomorrow afternoon I'm going to Windex my car windows just so I have a nice clean window to look thru...anything to help me see better to drive if I have to.

I have an eye appointment on wednesday to go to that I'll probably end up having my dad drive me to...eye doctor is a bit further away than I really want to go to drive...plus they'll be putting all manner of drops into my eyes and I dont think I'll want to drive home after that...so it's best that I have a ride there. Hope he tells me my eye is getting better.

I've actually gotten a wee bit of crocheting done. I've been working on another of the pineapple chair back shawls. This one in white. Since I've done about a dozen of these shawls, I've pretty much got the pattern memorized...which helps, since I dont have to keep stopping to read the pattern that much.

I finished a shawl awhile back with some Joann's Rainbow Boucle'. It's basically just a giant half granny square. My parents and my aunt Janice seem to really like it. My dad said he'd take a picture of it for me tomorrow. It's actually been cool enough to wear it the past two nights. (finally!) I have enough boucle to make another shawl, so once my eye returns to normal I'll probably start on another one. (my finished shawl is blue, the new one will be green) I'll probably give the new one to my aunt Jan.

I think it's time to go rest my eye...it's driving me nuts right now.

That was an expensive headache...

Ok, I might have mentioned something about having a Migraine from Hell and maybe a little vision problem in my left eye in my last post. After much panic, doctor visits, and a lot of money (I met my insurance deductible!), I now have a diagnosis.

It's a migraine.

A 3 week long, vision distorting, annoying, and sleep disturbing migraine. The vision problem is called Optic Neuritis. It caused my regular doctor and an opthamologist enough worry to send me off to get an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging scan). The MD and the optho both had me totally freaked out, because they were suggesting all manner of scary shit that could have caused the eye problems...and then the radiologist who read the MRI said that I should probably go see a neurologist to rule out some of that scary shit.

So, this morning I went to see the neurologist (an ancient looking guy with gnarled fingers, and hearing aids who was probably good friends with Methuselah as a child). The neuro was pretty cool, he had me walk heel-to-toe, and on the balls of my feet and and my heels, and had me touch my nose with my index fingers with my eyes closed...all that fun stuff.

So, after all that money (an MRI costs $6,000...there goes my dad's 42 inch flat screen, wall mounted tv for Xmas this year) I have a diagnosis of migraines. Which, I think is pretty cool...cause after having all that other scary stuff being described to me, being told I've got a headache sounds pretty good to me. (you have no idea the stress...no idea...)

The eye thing should clear up (according to ancient neuro guy) in 6 to 12 weeks (I like the opthamologists estimate of 3 to 6 weeks a lot better) and it should go back to normal vision (or at least what was normal for me...I wear glasses)

After all that, I forgot to ask for a Rx to take for migraines...I guess I can ask the regular doctor about that the next time I get a bad headache.

At least now that I've met my deductible, if I get a bad cold this winter, I wont have to worry about paying for a trip to the doctor...I wonder if I should get my ginormous tonsils removed before the end of the year? (everytime a doctor looks at my tonsils, they always ask if I want them out...maybe I should take them up on it? it would pretty much be a golfball-ectomy)

I'm gonna go take a nap.

I am never taking antibiotics again!

I'm never taking antibiotics again if I can help it.

I just spent about 2 1/2 hours in one of the nicest Emergency Rooms I've ever seen.

I *think* I've been suffering from some nasty side effects from the Biaxin I was taking for strep. (notice, I said "side effects", it wasnt an allergic reaction)

I'd started the Biaxin last tuesday. Wednesday night I started getting a headache. The headache wouldnt go away and it got it's worst on friday night/saturday morning when it became the Migraine From Hell.

Also going on, was a feeling of pressure in my sinuses at the bridge of my nose, and a bad pain in the left eye that was contributing to the Migraine From Hell. Saturday morning, I woke up, the headache had backed off, but my left eye was kind of...fuzzy...kind of like someone's put vaseline in my eye or something.

I asked my aunt about it (she's a nurse practitioner) and she said it could still be the migraine bugging me, but she was calling it an "ocular migraine". Little after that, I took a Biaxin...about an hour after taking that Biaxin, my headache was starting to return, and my eye was starting to hurt more, and I had this weird anxious feeling. Called the pharmacy, the pharmacist told me to stop taking the Biaxin and talk to my doctor on monday. So the anxious feeling went away after awhile, altho my eye still hurt, and I was hoping it would feel better this morning.

Got up this morning, and nope, my eye still hurt (more today) and was still fuzzy. I called my regular doctor's emergency number and asked about it. They told me to go to the Emergency Room and get my eye checked out.

So, I went to the ER...they put the yellowish liquid in my eye and shined a Wood's Lamp at me. They said there was possibly a corneal abrasion or two on my eye, and the doctor looked at my eye with another machine with all sorts of lights on it.

He called whatever my problem is "subjective left eye pain", which basically means that it hurts, but he cant see anything majorly wrong with it other than a minor corneal abrasion, which doesnt really explain the fuzzyness. So tomorrow, not only do I get to go do a follow-up with my regular doctor, I get to go to the opthamologist and get more stuff dripped into my eye. (ohyayforthat...damn)

Since I hadnt finished my antibiotics, I really hope the doctor doesnt tell me to take more...'cause now I'm totally leery of taking a Tylenol, much less another antibiotic.

This is really cutting into my crocheting AND my reading fan fiction on the internet (fan fiction is basically fictional stories, written by fans about now defunct tv shows...some of the stories are pretty good)

After I get done with this blog post, I'm going to turn the lights off, put a dvd in my dvd player, and crawl into bed and listen to a movie...or I could go attempt to crochet with my eyes closed (I can do it)

Hopefully this will go away soon and didnt cause any permanent damage to my eyesight...

Geeze...I'm really sensitive.

I guess I can add Biaxin to the list of antibiotics I cant take anymore.

Since starting the biaxin the other day, my left eye is all itchy and my vision is kind of blurry, I have a REALLY BAD headache, I've had insomnia for 3 days, I have a nasty metallic taste in my mouth, and I feel a little shaky and weird. (my dad says that it seems like my mood has changed...according to him I'm a little manic right now)

I called the pharmacist and explained to him the problems that I was having, which I've never had before...except for the metallic taste, and he at first didnt think those were side effects to the Biaxin...then he read a little further in his information. He told me to stop taking the Biaxin immediately and to call my doctor on monday to try to get another antibiotic.

Strange that out of all those side effects that one that's bothering me the most is the metallic taste. The vision problem is probably the one that's most annoying after that.

The manic feeling is a bit...weird, but aside from not being able to sit still, isnt all that bad.

I guess this explains the headache of migraine proportions that I had last night when I was writing my last blog post. I just wonder how long it will take me to metabolize my last dose out of my system. (took the last one around 12 or 1230pm CST, it's now 230pm CST) Maybe if I drink a lot of water and eat something, that will push it thru faster?

I wonder if I can use the manic feeling to get some crocheting done? ;) I dont think I'll work on anything important...just in case...

Why cant copyright theft be stopped?

(btw, if this sounds familiar to people, I wrote most of this post in a message that I posted on Crochetville in response to Kim Guzman's post about how one of her pattern leaflets was stolen by a Pattern Piggy a few weeks ago. The Pattern Piggy purchased the pattern from Kim, and then proceeded to email the pattern to all her friends. Now the pattern has probably been posted to a website for anyone who wants to right-click to save it to their computer can do so. I edited this message a bit to post here on my blog)

*****

I am on a Yahoo Group that is trying to fight the Pattern Piggies from stealing from designers.

I am so disgusted that there are people out there who think nothing of uploading someone's hard work to give away to their 500 closest friends for free. It's just as bad as shoplifting.

It's just as disgusting how they try to justify their stealing. They say "I'm on a fixed income and cant afford to buy them" (well, then just how are you paying for your internet access and printing supplies?) or, they post a quote from real copyright law, yet they've distorted the meaning of that particular law to make it appear as if they're just doing it for "educational purposes".

The one that gets me, I saw on eBay the other day. A seller had on one of her auctions (for cross stitch patterns) this saying: "It is not my intention to infringe on any copyright laws - all images used are obtained from the public domain. If you see an image which I have used and can prove copyright ownership, please let me know and the image will be removed immediately!"

Just what "public domain" did she get these images from? She had Thomas Kinkaide pictures, images of Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Disney characters, The Simpsons...ect...

When did these copyrighted and trademarked images get put into the "public domain"?? (the internet is NOT the "public domain".)

I emailed the seller and asked where she got the pictures. She told me she copied them off of free websites, and then she claimed that the internet is public domain, and she didnt think she was doing anything wrong.

I told her she was, and that just in case she wasnt aware, she could end up having legal monetary judgements filed against her for each instance of theft. Last I heard, you can be fined up to $150,000 per theft!

Not surprisingly, this morning when I checked, she had removed ALL her auctions and is no longer a registered member of eBay.

But, I'm sure she'll be back in a couple of days with a new name, selling more cross stitch patterns with images that she stole from the original creators and designers...at least when she cancelled her eBay account she lost all of her eBay feedback.

And sadly, there are dozens if not hundreds of eBay sellers doing the exact same thing that woman was. People are using computer programs to generate patterns for several different needlecrafts using copyrighted and trademarked material they've stolen from the original creators.

I've monitored groups and websites that are known to be Pattern Piggy friendly... I just checked one group yesterday and was just floored by the amount of scanned copyrighted material I saw on it. (I'm not mentioning the name of the site here because I dont want to encourage anyone to go there and steal)

When I last checked that site, dozens of Pattern Piggies had been scared into removing the copyrighted material from the photo pages. I hadnt checked it for about a month until yesterday. Not only were most of the illegal scans back, they'd added a bazillion more to it.

There has to be some way to stop this...too bad a lot of people consider copyright theft a victimless crime. It's not. It cost the designers, the publishers, and all the people who are involved in the publication process money.

Imagine this. A hypothetical pattern book costs $5. A person buys the book, takes it home. Scans it, and posts it to a website for 10 of her friends to "share".

(EDIT: btw, if I screwed up on the math, tell me. I think it's right, but I have a sinking suspicion I screwed up the math in the second example, and that screws up the math for the rest of the point I'm trying to make. I'm just not sure if it's screwed up...I really really suck at math...I flunked algebra 3 times in high school. Hopefully my aunt, a teacher, will see this and help me correct the math if it's wrong)

5 scanned pattern books x 10 friends = $50. That's 10 sales the designer lost out on.

Now imagine that each of those 10 friends gives the link to 10 of their friends.

5 books x 10 friends x 10 more friends = $500.

At that point the costs to the designer and the publisher starts rising exponentially.

5 books x 10 friends x 10 more friends x 10 more friends = $5,000

This means that designers lose money, and since no one is buying their work because they'd rather steal it instead, they lose their jobs. A job that I am positive most designers love to do. The publishers cut back on their publishing, the employees of the publisher lose their jobs.

Eventually it will get to a point where it will become extremely difficult to find a crochet or knitting magazine in the stores.

The Pattern Piggies either dont realize the damage their doing, or they just dont care. I imagine it's the latter.

My 100th blog post!! yay!

As the title says, this is my 100th blog post. Took me a year to do that much. Surprised that I didnt lose interest the first week.

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Started a scrap-a-ghan tonight. I have a ton of Red Heart Starbrights color (variegaited color, kind of like a spectrum) I'm doing a rectangle granny. 3 rounds of scrap, with one round of the Starbrights inbetween each color change. I've got about 6 rounds done so far. I might have this finished in time for a friend's birthday at the end of the month.

*****
(may be some profanity ahead...sorry)

I have a fairly serious interest in forensic criminal science and criminal psychology. Not serious enough to go to school and do anything practical with it, but enough that I read forensics books, and watch a lot of documentaries on tv. It's a hobby. Today I'm tickled pink that they have FINALLY caught the bastard that raped and murdered JonBenet Ramsey in 1996. He actually admitted it!

OhHellNO!! I just heard on FoxNews that he says it was an accident. Where the fuck does he get off claiming it was an accident?!? I've read books about her murder, and seen dozens of shows. He wrapped a garrote made of nylon cord and a paintbrush around her neck! If that doesnt show intent to kill, nothing does! Her official cause of death is blunt force trauma from a head injury, and asphyxiation due to the garrote he put around her neck. There's no way in hell anyone can tell me that he "accidentally" killed her.

He tortured her, used a foreign object to rape her, tasered her (taser is a stun gun), hit her head hard enough to cause severe head trauma and then choked her to death with a garrote.

Colorado has the death penalty. If he actually did this (they still have to prove it forensically), this prick (John Karr) deserves it.

What really creeps me out about this guy, heard this on FoxNews this afternoon after the news broke, is that John Karr had apparently been emailing Patsy Ramsey in the months before her death from cancer, and had been describing to Patsy Ramsey in the emails what he did to JonBenet the night he killed her. I feel so bad for Patsy Ramsey that she had to suffer thru that while dying of cancer. What a sadistic thing for him to do to her.

I am a firm believer that anyone who could harm a child like this deserves the death penalty. From what I've read, child molesters are very unlikely to change their ways, even with psychiatric treatment. They have a high recidivism rate (the definition of recidivism is: "The continued, habitual or compulsive commission of law violations after first having been convicted of prior offenses.")

I think that convicted child molesters should not only be segregated from society for their entire lives (preferrably on a desolate island with man-eating wild boars roaming around) but also that those who repeatedly re-offend should receive the death penalty...with no opportunities to appeal.

I hope this bastard didnt make any deals with the Boulder, CO prosecutor's office to avoid the death penalty. Hopefully he pleads guilty and gets a speedy execution.

eeeewwwwww!

the antibiotics just kicked in...ohmygoshireallyreallyreallyhateantibiotics!

This. is. going. to. be. a. long. 10. days.

I hate being sick and I really really really hate Biaxin! It really sucks that antibiotics make me feel sicker than the sore throat was making me feel.

*****

I'm watching a show on The History Channel about September 11th. I cant believe it's been almost 5yrs since that day. Seems like it was just yesterday.

*****

This is my 99th post on my blog. My blog will be 1yr old at the end of the month. I'm surprised I didnt get bored with this long before now. *yawn* ;)

I think I'll go crochet something.

Ohmygosh those are freaking huge!!!

well, I have golf ball-sized tonsils. I just got back from a doctor's appointment, and I've apparently got some mutant sized tonsils that are just teeming of strep.

Before the doctor looked down my throat, I warned him that my tonsils are abnormally large when I'm healthy, so dont be surprised at how big they are. I could see him thinking "ok...just how BIG could they really be?". He looked, his eyes got about as big as my tonsils and he pretty much exclaimed that they were probably some of the biggest tonsils he's ever seen....and yes, they were infected.

He didnt really need to look at them to see they were infected. The nurse showed some initiative when I went into the exam room and did the swab ahead of time. She said the doctor was running behind, and she knew he'd want to culture it anyways, so she just went ahead and did it. So, the doctor knew I had strep before he even stepped into the room and met me.

So, now I'm going to have 10 fun filled days of antibiotics...biaxin 500 mg b.i.d. x 10 (that's biaxin, one pill, twice a day, for 10 days) I guess I better go buy some lemon yogurt to make the antibiotics a little more palatable.

:(

I'm not happy. But, at least the doctor said I'm also supposed to rest, so I guess I can spend my time resting, crocheting. (hmmm! what should I make?)

I'm still practicing my knitting. I should probably take a picture later so I can prove that I can actually do it. The knitting is getting easier to do...I havent made much more than a couple of swatches, but at least I can do it.

I've had an idea for a new afghan. I'm thinking of using some of my scrap to make 4 large granny squares, and then sewing them together into an afghan. It's nothing exciting, but just thought that would look cool with all my different scrap colors.

Why is the world so freaking insane?

I dont know if anyone else has watched the news tonight (I'm a news junkie...my tv is always on FoxNews unless there's something more interesting to watch)

FoxNews

http://www.foxnews.com/

is reporting that the British have arrested at least 20 people who had somehow managed to get LIQUID EXPLOSIVES past airport security. As far as I've figured out from the news, they think they got all of them (hopefully) and that all the planes were headed for the United States.

edit: They just announced they're still looking for at least two people

edit 2: Now they're saying the plot was for 6 airplanes to be blown up, but that they've arrested anywhere between 20 and 50 people involved in the plot.

I just talked to a friend, and he said that most of those planes (the kind that do overseas flights) could potentially have at least 250 passengers per plane. So, do the math. Twenty potential explosives laden airplanes x 250 people per plane. That's at least 5,000 people that could have been killed tonight. (The September 11th attacks killed just under 3,000)

About all I can say is "what the F%&*?!?!?!"

Killing people just because they dont pray to the same god(s) you do is just insane. (the terrorists arrested are all British muslims).

I'm really glad that we're not going to have a 8-10 (today's date) to memorialize like we do 9-11 (that's as long as they got all the terrorists involved in the plot) You have to love the British for managing to get this stopped.

I'm going to bed now. Hopefully there wont be any bad news for me to see on the news in the morning.