Fallen

On the way to get lunch, I had to push my way through a horde of students marching and protesting fee increases and demanding smaller class sizes. (They were blocking the way to the sandwich shop.)

Now, their fees are *heavily* subsidized by the state, to the tune of maybe a quarter or a fifth of the going rate. Crazy Joe is practically *giving* education away. The state has a huge deficit due to this subsidization (among its other welfare programs) and the belief that everyone is college material and everyone has a "right" to go to college, as long as you are breathing and have a GPA of 2.5, or are willing to whine extensively to Admissions. Not only are the prices rock-bottom, but your admission WILL NOT BE REFUSED!

So, these 'I have a RIGHT to college' geniuses are demanding that the state not increase the fees and increase the services.

Geniuses: "You can't increase the fees and cut the classes available! And there's too many people in the classes I do have! I pay my fees and I demand this stuff!"

Voice of Reason: "But there is not enough money to have the services you want at the price you're willing to pay. Where is the money supposed to come from?"

Geniuses: "From the government!"

Fine. Somebody is going to nod their head sagely and not increase their fees because the *government* will take up the slack.

But wait! Where is the *government* going to get this money?

From YOU, genius. Taxes, baby, taxes. You could've just paid YOUR fees and got on with your life, but now, genius, you can pay EVERYBODY'S fees, for the rest of your stay in the lovely State of Welfare.

Yesterday, I went to Daughter's school because she got on the honor roll for third grade. :D

She got a certificate with her name spelled wrong, a patch for her shirt (not even a *whole* proverbial t-shirt), and a bumper sticker. :/ A few of the fourth and fifth graders got highest honors, so those kids also got a trophy like a two-handled shot glass. All the kids lined up beside the stage looking extremely bored, or like they were facing a firing squad, or both.

By the time it was winding up, the expressions on the kids' faces were 'just gimme my sticker and my shot glass so we can get out of here.'

Crap. I'm stil trying to find enough motivation to finish my step-dad's socks. Other than that, all I've got done is some hyperventilating.

I heard somewhere that Advent starts next week, too.

I think I'm in holiday season denial. D:

The first thing I do when I log on is get coffee. Caffeine is essential for optimum password recall and blogroll enjoyment.

I think this question is backwards. A better question would be, "What books should a high school library have?" or "Has anyone at the high school library actually *read* the books in its collection? Or just the dust jackets?" I don't think books should be banned, as such, but there's probably a few that should be deliberately excluded from a high school library, like "Belinda" or "Exit to Eden". I'm *still* searching for brain bleach for stuff I've read, even years and years later. High school education shouldn't be at cross-purposes with responsible parenting. "Let's read some challenging material" =/= "OMG! Bring on the sex & violence!" Parenting isn't a strangle-hold on everything a kid does; that would be "house arrest". Parenting is giving a kid the opportunity to either shine or fall on their faces without too many extra variables involved. That's why we let little kids play in a nice smooth yard with no thorn bushes but the older ones can go off to explore the fields and look for frogs in the creek.

One the other hand, if the books are merely terrible, rambly and pointless (Terry Goodkind, I'm looking at *you*), or substituting choppiness for suspense ( *cough* Dan Brown *cough*) then perhaps a series of bookplates could be commissioned:

"Remember all the stuff you learned about good writing in English class? This book is an example of what not to do."

"You will never get these hours back. And brain bleach doesn't really exist."

"Playing video games all afternoon would be a better use of your time."

"Think the classics are too stuffy? How about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?"

Dora is enjoying her newly-discovered kitteh warmer.

1. Make a mental list of recipients.
2. Brainstorm about what to get said recipients.
3. Realize that recipients don't actually want or need anything, in direct conflict with the seasonal directive.
4. Notice looming mailing deadline.
5. Panic.
6. Make marathon shopping trip and complete wrapping and pack for mailing at midnight.
7. Get packages in mail and hope that they will arrive before New Year's.
8. Realize that recipient list is missing several recipients.
9. Forget to buy Christmas cards. Again.
10. Despair.
11. Refrain from smacking person who organizes last-minute potluck at work. Promise to bring drinks or napkins or something.
12. Forget to pick up potluck stuff with groceries. Make emergency trip to store before work. Arrive late.
13. Indigestion.
14. Become nauseous at the thought of more turkey or candy canes.
15. Become homicidal at the sound of Christmas muzak which has been playing since Labor Day.
16. Catch flu.
17. Spend quiet Christmas at home with hot brandy and lemon.

And now technology has allowed me to plan all of this out ahead of time . . .

I bottled my second experimental infusion, with the only explicit instruction of "3 pomegranates" and "3 weeks".

Like the label? I wanted to post about it today, but I didn't want to wait to use a printer so here's my little "Jewel Fish" to go with the theme of jewel-like pomegranate seeds. (The infusion really is pomegranate-seed-colored; my camera phone sucks.)

( Read more... )
Overall, a drinkable infusion.

My cat has been begging for pretty much anything I'm eating since I got her, and not just meat.  However, I think I have a new explanation:

She is a social eater and she's being social by sharing what I eat.

The cake tidbits could be just begging.  There is no other explanation, however, for a cat trying to eat chips and salsa. o_O

My Spiced Cider vodka infusion experiment has come to a successful conclusion!



( Recipe, methodology, results, and insights )
Even with the things I'd change next time, this turned out really well. 

Tasty!

And dangerously smooth.  It's flavorful enough that you take bigger sips than one might normally take with straight vodka (which it still, essentially is) and the little alcohol burn that remains after infusion is basically gone after you take 3 or 4 sips.  It's like what they say about vodka, only more so because *you will not see it coming*.  ("One's alright, two at the most, three's under the table, four's under the host.")

Pomegranates are in season, now.  I may try them next.

First, the good news: My wool combs arrived and they're a lot of fun. I feel like Wool-verine! :D

The bad news:  Gotland isn't really appropriate for the type of spinning/knitting I like to do. :(  Quite simply, I was a dork who went with an impulse buy rather than really look for a fleece that was more appropriate, i.e. fine or very fine.  My bad.

HOWEVER . . . my dumb can be your gain.

I've got about a pound of silvery-charcoal-y locks, washed and sorted, so they're not gooky and the kemp and most of the second cuts have been discarded.  It would be best as outerwear, and will likely need to be spun to a worsted weight yarn to avoid twine-y-ness.  A drum carder would be a better prep than the combing I attempted because there's both fine and strong fibers mixed together, and they really need to stay that way.  It would probably do well as a woven fabric after it's spun, if there's any weavers on my flist.  It's also appropriate for felting if anyone does felting (the only longwool that is, in fact).

If anyone's interested, drop me a note.

1. Three-quarters of the Gotland fleece is washed and sorted. I've got different piles going for 1) long, soft, and nicely wavy, 2) shorter but still nice, 3) somewhat wonky but could be nice in a blend, and 4) hair shirt material. Some of my choices could be toss-ups, as far as which pile it should go in, but I figure if the lock is better than the pile it landed in then the fiber is enriched, but if it's worse, it will be impoverished.

2. Wool combs! I haz ordered dem!

3. Did you know that's how St. Blaise was martyred? Flayed with wool combs. D: Bigger ones, though, meant for larger coarser fleeces, rather than the (comparatively) small ones (4 inches wide) that I'm gettering for fine and delicate stuff. I wonder what Fr. would say if I showed up with a set of these to be blessed on February 3rd?

4. In order to advance the field of alconomics, I am making a peer review of Spiced Cider infused vodka, as described at Infusions of Grandeur.  This should be cool.

5.  I like making bulleted posts like this.  It makes my collection of notes-to-me and random brain farts sound much more cohesive. ;)

1.  Angostura bitters is one of the substances which I've used to try to mask the taste of articificial sweetener in Coke Zero, with partial success.  Four or five drops is enough to distract with "what is this new smell?" long enough to finish the soda.

2.  Because I don't like water for sipping.  Water is for chugging while standing next to the fridge.  I like stuff with flavors for sipping, but flavors tend to have too many calories. :P  Flavors also mean that I'll want more of it, compounding the calorie problem. :P :P :P

3.  Angostura bitters will stain countertops.  Oops.

4.  I bought a whole fleece!  I went to Lambtown, USA in Dixon this weekend and bought a Gotland lamb fleece, to wash and prepare by hand for spinning. Here's a handful of unwashed locks:
  I love the silvery charcoal color. Shiny! :D  This is the type of wool they used for the elvish cloaks in LotR movies.

5. The fleece is a little tacky, but because this is a longwool (like Wensleydale or Blue-faced Leicester) most of the tackyness is just dust and sweat which comes right out, easy peasy.  Finewools, like Merino, can be up to half the fleece's weight in lanolin. D:

6.  Gotland is the one longwool that will felt if I'm not careful. :/

7.  I have also been snipping the tips off because they are a completely different color and texture than the rest of the lock.  This was the lamb's first haircut, so the tips are tiny chocolate brown corkscrews (you can see them in the photo) which were the lamb's birthcoat.  When I'm done with trimming a pile of locks, I have a stack of wavy silver locks next to a pile of brown neps.

8.  I'm going to need a set of wool combs.

Add this to the links list when whatever part of lj that prevents me from doing it now is not broken.

http://www.scofflawsden.com/

The metal casings of a pair of dead PCs, when combined with a taut T1 wire, far outstrips the efficacy of communicating via string and soup cans.

I came across this article, yesterday.

. . .
About 1500 years ago, there was an advanced civilization known as the Sassanid empire. We generally think of them as “Persians” or “Iranians right before Islam.” Of earthly civilizations of their day, they were among the most advanced. . . .
. . .
They had a powerful and helpful civil service. People who lived in the Sassanid Empire enjoyed fruits of prosperity that had been rare in human history before the industrial revolution. By all accounts, the Sassanid Empire was a pleasant, prosperous, tolerant, and wonderful place to live. . . .
. . .
The Sassanid empire also had people who believe in the exactly same kind of nonsense that modern Northern Californian buffoons do.
. . . 
Mazdak’s followers proceeded to tear the nation apart, destroying and looting as they went. Eventually, thousands would die in a decades-long civil war against these avowed pacifists in a nation that had known internal peace for centuries. Eventually, after years of this, King Kavadh’s eminently sensible son Khosarau managed to put Mazdak and his followers to the sword. Since Mazdakites believed in a complete inversion of Persian society, Khosarau had them buried upside down with their feet in the air.

( Article under cut . . . ) Got a sinking feeling yet?

What do frogs feel like?