twiddling my thumbs

17 May 2006 in journal

hi there ~ once again, in a bit of a limbo. mostly because my portfolio presentation and defense is this friday at 4 pm (think good thought for me!) – i plan on serving a lot of caffeine and, i’m thinking, some good pizza. anything to keep my panel awake, interested, and benevolent during this horrible timeslot. there’s not much i can really do at this point to prepare, except for a few cosmetic changes to my presentation. i’m mostly trying not to pace too much, to get as much sleep as possible, and turn the music on for a good half hour each day to just shake the willies out.

the limbo is all the more enhanced since, as of today, madli’s shawl is done! currently blocking, it took a little over a month to do. more info, and finished pics, later, but for now, know this: however lovely the shawl is, grafting laceweight truly bites. anyhow, the king is dead, long live the king, right? wrong. my yarn-destined-to-be-an-urban-aran is lost somewhere and i have to wait until tomorrow until elann will ship out a replacement. of course, the color i wanted- and ordered!- is now unavailable, so i’ll have to pick another color. sigh. my hands are just itching to do something.

some drama: this morning, whilst grafting and muttering the grafter’s mantra (i.e. “knit, purl, purl, knit”), a gorgeous tree across the street was cut down branch by branch. i loved that tree – it was just a sweet reminder of nature on this otherwise busy and noisy street. the leaves shimmied and glistened in the sunlight, created the nice dappled shadows you’ve ever seen, and made many a bird fell happy and safe. so sad. i guess it was cut down since it was blocking the “for rent” sigh? ay. i had to take pictures documenting its death and with each creak and crash, i just kept thinking “i’m so ready to leave los angeles.” (maybe that’s contributing to the limbo-feeling as well..) slightly exagerrated, i know, but i hate the way nature is treated here, what little that is allowed to grow freely through the cracks in the cement and beyond the reach of the spinklers and lawnmowers of the wealthy. ugh. anyhow, i loved you tree and will never forget the many happy days and nights i spent with your silhouette in my window.

here’s a really good article – Welcome to ‘Whole-Mart’
Rotten Apples in the Social Responsibility Industry. i think i’ll be avoiding whole foods from now on. [via cauldron ridge]

A closer look at the company’s business practices and [CEO] Mackey’s ideas about business and society reveals a vision not that different from a McDonald’s or a Wal-Mart….This is a vision of mega-chain retailing that involves strategic swallowing up (or driving out of business) of smaller retail competitors. It is a business model that objectively complements the long-term industrialization of organics (that is, large-scale corporate farms) over small family farms. It is also a vision in which concerns about social responsibility do not necessarily apply where less publicly visible company suppliers are concerned.â€?</p> lastly, want to know more about this net neutrality thing people are posting/talking/writing about? here’s a good little 3 minute video. then, go sign the petition, wontcha ya?

eat local-wise, made some leek and potato soup last night, yum. even put together a little fruit salad, a rarity for me, and am considering for dinner some nice marinated beets, carrot salad with raisins, and a baked sweet potato. yup, lots of color.

still bummed about the tree,
andrea