happy first of july!
in journal
happy first of july! (especially to you canadians) and happy thursday — very happy since this weekend will be a long weekend, yippee! to mark the occasion of the upcoming holiday, i’ve decided to finally read james loewen‘s “lies my teacher told me”. one great sentence stuck me right at the beginning. In it’s context: “[History textbooks] portray the past as a simple-minded morality play. ‘Be a good citizen’ is the message that textbooks extract from the past. ‘You have a proud heritage. Be all that you can be. After all, look at what the United States has accomplished.’ While there is nothing wrong with optimism, it can be something of a burden for students of color, children of working-class parents, girls who notice the dearth of female historical figures, or members of any groups that has not achieved socioeconomic success. The optimistic approach prevents any understanding of the failure other than blaming the victim.“ (p.14) indeed.
last night i went to a two-hour class at pathtofreedom,an urban homstead, on learning how to spin using a drop spindle. it was greatgreat. so much fun and really easy to get the (beginner’s) hang of it. i felt like a character in a fairy tale … i mean really, who spins?! my yarn was super lumpy and, since it’s still only one-ply, not really suitable for knitting. but i get the general idea of two-ply, so i might to do that and then knit something (not that i’ve knitted anything yet at all, with regular yarn.. sigh. i just jump the gun / like to complicate everything as much as possible.) btw, the kit, along with wool in different colors (i got bayberry), was provided by our teacher annie may (who was just the other day interviewed in the pasadena star newspaper).
i found lots of great websites all about handspinning. the best of the best so far is the joy of handspinning, which is full of info not only with texts and photos but also lots and lots of quicktime movies! wow, really thorough. they make it look so easy… btw, i’m the one in the black halfway buttoned-up black sweater on the right side of the photo, facing the camera.
also, i reconnected with a friend from months ago last night, which was real good. the last time she tried to get in touch with me was really weird and awkward for both of us and i thought “oh well, that’s over” and instead it seems cool again, but knowing that we’re both busy and unpredictable.
i bought really pretty yarn last week to start on the stitch n bitch’s “ribbed-for-her-pleasure” scarf (my, that name!) but i still haven’t done a thing. partially, i think that’s becuase i feel kinda silly knitting a wool scarf while it’s the summer in los angeles. now, though! knitty has come out with their “sex and the knitty“ issue for the summer and boy do i feel motivated again. so pretty and extremely practical, which is a combination i can’t resist.
i finally added some photos to the gallery (yes, it’s been a while) — they’re from my weekend jaunt to puerto vallarta a few weeks back. very fun, as the pictures show..
~ andrea
p.s. yesterday at work i installed firefox for every computer, officially that is. (the back computers and mine have had firefox since november last year.) if you’re still using internet explorer, get thee to firefox‘s site immediately! if not to support open-source, see the internet better, because firefox can do more than ie and also promotes web standards, or because firefox just kicks ass in general, then at least for your computer’s safety!
