During My Day...

I check Vice Magazine pretty often. It's a mecca of hipster fashion do's and dont's, serious journalism and just weird and funky things. So I stay pretty entertained between fifteen minute bouts of homework. Today, however, I found a VBS (Vice TV) series on Garbage Island, a patch of trash the size of Texas floating in the Pacific Ocean between San Francisco and Hawaii. It's called Toxic and I'm only halfway through episode one and I realized that I had to post this. Unbelievable. No, wait, totally believable but mind blowing that it's NOT unbelievable.

"There's so much that individuals... you know they get inundated, inundated, inundated and yet something really significant like the Gyre, nobody knows about it. I mean if we didn't have this boat and some people, who would ever tell us about it? It's in the middle of nowhere, why would it effect us? It's in the middle of nowhere and we don't see it. And if we don't see it, it doesn't exist" (episode 3).

Here is the first episode:

There are twelve episodes in all, and can be found here. Too bad we can't blame everything on the Commies anymore. Thanks McCarthy.

Procession of the Species

Today was the Procession of the Species parade in Olympia. I definitely went last year and there's no WAY I'd miss this year's. Turned out to be a good choice. Evan and I started to walk down around 3, got there at about 3:30 thanks to Evan's crazy fast walking pace, got some sorbet because it was weirdly hot/cold outside. The parade didn't start until 4:30 and it took just under an hour to reach us at the end of its route. The cool thing was, however, that people came down the street with wheel-barrows full of free sidewalk chalk. How cool is that? By the time Star and Ben found us I'd already nabbed a couple of sticks, but then between Star and I we managed to collect the full spectrum of colors. Ben was all for letting the little kids get first dibs, but they're like little squirrels or vultures, swooping down and hoarding all the good stuff. Little hoarders. That's right, I'm not impressed by their cuteness, I know what goes on in their little brains. I was one once, you know. Anywho, this is Ben drawing with our pilfered chalk. So pretty.
But even prettier shoes!

Stylin'.
Star took a ten second nap while we waited, and waited... and waited for the parade to get all the way down to the park.

The Salmon are here! The Parade has officially begun with a bunch of salmon in the street.
This lady was definitely into the whole horse idea. I much prefer when people are really into their costumes than if they just decided to throw a pair of hot pants, some neon nylons and a spaghetti strap shirt with face paint smeared on for good measure, and walk down the street. You're not a species, you're a person with not enough clothing on, that's who you are mister.
This is definitely a Collin-sloth. SWEET. Good job Collin!
Zebra. Not pronounced Zeee-bra, but ZEB-rah. That's the way we do it, thank you very much.
This guy was a banana slug. Amazing.


Ants. Star and I decided that one of the ant people was Jack Longino, one of the entomology instructors at Evergreen, and our faculty sponsor for our beekeeping contract. Go Jack!
Raarrrrrrr.... kitty wants to play.
Man-riding Gorilla!
I think there should have been a squelching sound accompanying this octopiddle.

CRABS! YOU'VE GOT CRABS! CRABS ON BIKES!

Not a crab. A very serious little.... bird?
Vrooommmmm! Goes the sea turtle.

Flower people. Ben has decided that it's not entirely appropriate for flowers to be hanging around so many bees. It's a little naughty...
BEES! You're covered in BEES!
CHICKEN! That deserves capital letters.
Lizardman , getting up close and personal.
I don't know what's more frightening, the aging hippy in the fly suit, or the fly suit itself.

He actually made that little boy scream when he made a *buxzzzzxxzz* sound.
The belly dancing picture and....

the matching video.

Flamingos!

Oh, MON-tayyyy

Bunny's in the grass.

He kept launching himself at me so I had to hold him at bay so that he didn't collide directly with my face.

Mitties

I finally finished my mittens!

Oh lobster mix, you look so lovely nestled into the overgown grass that is my back yard...

TV Memories

I was talking to Dharyll last night when he asked me if I remembered the show Ghostwriter. And I ask you, is that any kind of question? OF COURSE I remember Ghostwriter. I even remember the plots of most of the shows. However, my all-time favorite and also the main contributor to my nightmares for years was one episode: Attack of the Slime Monster. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) Absolutely terrifying.

After a little bit of searching, I found the episode on youtube. But an even greater find was the discovery that SAMUEL L. JACKSON is the character Jamal's dad. In the very first episode he pops up and is moving stuff around in Jamal's Grandmother's basement. Nice. Plus he immediately starts slinging around the sarcasm on a kids show. Even better.

The one thing these clips showed me is that I will always hate that Lenni character.

Wonderful

Today started out boringly enough. I watched Through Deaf Eyes (a documentary about the deaf history in the U.S. over the last 100 years, pretty good) over a bowl of cereal as Monty attempted to seduce me with his manly hops and soft grunting sounds while he paced along the couch where I perched in all my morning glory. It didn't work, but it was a valiant effort. Then I made the cream cheese frosting for the tomato soup cake for the potluck today (which was a splendid success. It turned out a bit like carrot cake). Went to class, saw Pillow Talk in all of its ridiculous fifties-romance-story magnificence. The potluck itself was a huge success. Everything was 50's themed, so there were rice crispy treats, tomato soup cake, jello moulds, etc. Towards the end though, something started to smell like a combination of cat litter and wet dogs. It was just about the most unpleasant thing ever.

But then I came home and went a-surfin' on the nets. That's when I discovered that Jessie had posted the story of U-Dorm's tragic night on her blog. Jessie does complete justice to the epic state of affairs. Keep in mind that the whole thing went down from about 10:30 when we got there until 2:30 am when we left to sleep at Jessie's apartment. During this time I called Ben in an attempt to figure out where his cleaning supplies were stashed in the apartment only to find out that there wasn't really anything beyond paper towels, air freshener and plastic lavender garbage bags called Rufies (like the drug). Plus, Jessie and I got to sleep at about 3 am and then woke up at 7. That was a long day. Amazing.

You've Been Swarmed!

I had another bee class today. We didn't actually go out and poke about the hives today, instead we took a quiz, talked about bee social behavior (bee dancing (on a side note I found a video about bee dances on youtube with a narrator who sounds startlingly like the actor who plays Richmond on the IT Crowd show) etc.) and then watched some bee related youtube videos. Quite helpful really.

Ahhhh I'm covered in bees!

And then what must be one of the most frightening insects of all time.

There were audible gasps of horror in class when we watched this clip.

Tomorrow for my Fifties class Michelle and I are going to make tomato soup cake (a classic from the era) with cream cheese frosting for the potluck. Wish us luck!

The O-Farm

I had another class about bees today which was amazing. We got to wear bee suits, have bees crawl their little bodies all over us and I got to watch some chickens lay eggs because I was early for class.

Chickens, not laying eggs. Chickens definitely laying eggs.
Star, not laying eggs but wearing an out-of-this-world hip bee suit. Right after this picture she pretended to be walking on the moon around the perimeter of the garage-turned-headquarters of the O-farm (as the Organic Farm shall henceforth be dubbed).

Fantastic.

How Appropriate

Homework

This, clearly, isn't homework. Instead, it's what I do to avoid homework at all costs. I finished my pony thing. I think I liked it better blank, but I decided to try to embroider things on it and see how it turned out.

Another one for the collection.
And here's my little craft buddy.

He's grown pretty fond of those bags of stuffing.

Sigh...

The Place: My Room at 10:00 PM

I'm tired. Lastnight Jessie and I didn't get to sleep until about 3 (after a crraaazzyyy time at U-dorm... that's another story that isn't going to wind up on here) and then we woke up at 7-ish so that Jessie's rat Choxie could go in and get her new tumor removed. I walked home from the transit center before I was properly awake (I still had pillow marks on my face) and before I had foods. But then I got home and remedied that situation; I took a shower, got back on the bus, went to the Farmers Market, bought a hens-n-chicks plant and then came back to do some felting and quiet time with the windows open. It was quite lovely.

Then I watched My Neighbor Totoro. I watched it when I was little little, but I didn't remember an ounce of it. It's a great movie. At this point my eyes are glazed, and I'm tempted to sleep on the couch because my room seems so very far away. But I decide to let Monty out for a last minute romp while I get ready for bed. I had some clothes on my bed from sleeping over at Jessie's last night so I just pulled the jammy pants from the top of the pile and put them on. I start picking things up off the floor when I realized that the knee and hip of my pants are wet. That's odd. And then I thought, slower this time

"The knee of my pants IS WET!

NOOOOOOOOOO!"

It's dawned on me, and I wish it hadn't. I sweep the medley of clothes off my bed in horror. Monty, at some point, has seen fit to pee on my bed again. I rip off the blanket I had on top of everything: wet. The comforter lands in a heap in my doorway: wet. My top sheet: wet. My fitted sheet: wet. My mattress protector: wet. The cover on my down mattress pad: damp, but the down is fine.

Down Monty goes, straight back into his cage with no treats. I rip off my pants and throw them in the enormous pile of bedding in the hall. My summer sheets are out early, I have no comforter so I've hunted up all the blankets in the house and piled them on my bed. At least he missed the pillows. I still can't believe that after a good streak, he chooses tonight to do that. Plus I'm pretty sure it's been there since I made dinner when I had to go check my burbling soup, leaving him to his own devices for FIVE MINUTES.

Naughty bunny.

I'm Scheming...

up an idea that has only one possible outcome: complete success! I'm trying to lure people into helping me because I think I'll need to feed off of other people's ability to focus on a project long enough to finish it. I'm still 1/3 of the way done with my second glove... I haven't touched it in almost a week. Also, I made whipped up a shirt a while ago but never got around to putting a zipper in the back. Yesterday, I decided to wear such shirt because even though I thought it was hideous when I initially put it aside, it was calling to me yesterday. So I decided to pin the back. Not with safety pins, mind you, but the kind of pin you use to take things in place when you're sewing. You know.... of the infinitely sharp variety. So I did that, and it worked until I got to Jessie's when I hear a muffled *pop!* and all of the sudden my chest was freer than everything was supposed to be. I pinned it back but quickly changed out of it when I got home. Luckily I have little whale buttons I'm going to use on it. The only remaining problem is that I don't know how to sew button holes. So right now the shirt is relegated to my new "in progress" bin in my brand new craft room (I shifted all of Paul's crap out of his old room and into Katherine's old room so that I could appropriate his bachelor-hole for crafty biz-nass and I'm imagining a Monty palace in the corner). The project I have in mind for the mean time, however, is A CARDBOARD RHINOCEROS HEAD! I found this kit online but I'm very sure that I could do it on my own with a little help and a lotta cardboard. I'm pretty excited.

Oh and this is my little friend-in-progress. I don't know how to finish it. All I have is the beginnings of a boring, white body. I think it'll either be a llama or a horsey. I was thinking camel, but I didn't think about it soon enough to build the humps into the basic body structure. Lemme know what ya'll think he should become or what colors! I have dark brown, bright green, tan, this off-white and a brown/grey combination.

And the tree in our front yard bloomed today! I don't know what it is but between it and the plum tree next to it everything smells heavenly outside.

Nests for the Hannah Bird

The two links below take you to these amazing... nests, that Patrick Dougherty constructs. I think I'd like one, I mean we have PLENTY of room in our vaulted livingroom.

http://www.stickwork.net/installations2.php#

http://housemartin.typepad.com/housemartin/2008/04/hatch.html

Light 'Er Up!

"... and then you take your hive tool and KILL THE QUEEN!"

Today in my Beekeeping class we learned that you
a.) don't exhale when bees are mad, so very mad.
b.) when you have a "bad" hive (meaning they're just plainly evil little buggers) you kill the queen and
c.) when you light something on fire starting at the bottom of whatever it is, you then rotate your hand so that it's not above the flames that are slowly licking their way towards your easily cooked flesh. Genius.

We started our first day by looking at the bees in their little wooden hives, then we got to put on the safari hats covered in netting, then we got to take them off, and then we got to play with the smokers. A beekeeping smoker looks like a french press and the Tin man from the Wizard of Oz got together and started a steamy little family. What you do is you find about a 4in x 5in bit of burlap sacking and you loosely roll it up. Then, holding the roll in your hand you take a lighter and begin to light the bottom on fire.

The whole object is to make an ember that'll last for a while. However, this is where my special genius comes in. So I'm holding my quickly blazing piece of burlap sacking, watching the flames get higher and higher and I'm getting more and more worried. Jake (the beekeeping teacher) looks over and says something along the lines of "Oh, you haven't really been around fire, have you? Huh." and then tells me to drop what had become a ball of flame. He scoops it up and says slowly, "Now, when the flames get that big, you rotate your hand so that the flames are going upwards... AWAY from your hand. I think we need to start with basic wildlife survival." Star, meanwhile is laughing her head off and then proceeds to do the exact same thing I did.

Silly Star.

It was sort of cold and pretty muddy out there, but very cool. The bees had just come in yesterday and were a little groggy but the chickens were very much awake. I think next time I'll take my camera so I can show you all the chick chick chickens!

Oh, and I managed to burn myself on the smokers. I can't be expected to remember EVERYTHING. I mean, I have way more important things to remember, like the exact time it takes to microwave a bowl of oatmeal to perfection, than that metal gets hot when it's been on fire for a while. Sheesh, who needs wilderness survival when you can just make the same mistakes a couple of times and then learn your lesson (or do I learn my lesson? I've been burning myself on things for the last 20 years, so that makes for a pretty poor learning curve).

Springtime!

Mr. Piggie has some blossom friends.
Remember that mitten I was making with that yarn I wasn't going to buy but did anyway? Well here's the first one, made with 100% lobster mix. I'm figuring out that it's hella difficult to take pictures of clothing or things you wear. I'm used to my little stuffed friends where I can stick them in the grass, walk away a few feet, snap a picture and be done. But I felt like a dork standing in my front yard taking pictures of my hand. Here it is, finished in all its glory. I think I might embroider a flower or something on it. I still have to finish the second one. I think I might be in love with this yarn though. 50% wool and 50% alpaca it feels like heaven. I think I'll sell these though, if I can find someone with hands as small as mine.

P.S. this is the first pattern (wearable pattern, that is) that I've made up completely on my own! Go me.

The Killing

The remains of my paint. I can't get it out of his fur so he's going to have to have a pink tummy and paw for a while.

He's exhausted from his earlier mischief.

I don't blame him, it's hard work making such a big mess in so little time.

Who Knew I Had a Type?

Mummy sent me a personality/career thingy that made me realize that I fit rather neatly into the ENFP category.

ENFP:
People of this type tend to be: enthusiastic, talkative, and outgoing; clever, curious, and playful; deeply caring, sensitive, and gentle; highly innovative, creative, optimistic, and unique; adaptable and resourceful but sometimes disorganized.The most important thing to ENFPs is freedom to see possibilities, make connections, and be with a variety of people.

That sounds about right. Just about perfectly right. The careers that the test tells me I would like are pretty much spot on to what I think I would like:

• Journalist/magazine reporter
• Graphic Designer (uh oh... sounds familiar don't it?)
• Art Director
• Copywriter
• Psychologist
• Inventor (yeah.. that's right. Gonna invent me a diaper for rabbits pretty soon)
• Human Resources Professional (I don't know what this is and Monster isn't about to tell me)

In addition to Monster's list, Personalitytype.com also tells me I would like being a/an:

• Child welfare counselor

Beyond that, the lists are identical. I'm not sure if they just copy and pasted the list from each other or if it's just a crazy coincidence. On a related note there are two other links from the ENFP description that caught my eye.

The first was "How to Love an ENFP" which was amusing. It's vaguely right. I do like harmony, and I like being encouraged to do stuff, but that's all pretty basic I think.

Anyway, the second list was "How to Communicate with ENFP's".

This list says that ENFP's are easy to spot because they are:

• High energy, friendly, and good natured.
• Imaginative, fun loving, and off beat
• Curious; discussions shift quickly from one topic to another
• Warm, concerned, and eager to help solve problems

Also, the tips for actually communicating with my crazy species are pretty great:

• Focus on interesting and innovative possibilities and new ways of solving problems
• Don't overwhelm them with facts and details
• Keep things relaxed, warm and flexible

All in all I'm a little unnerved that everything I thought consisted of what made me a little unique could so easily be put into a few words from a four question personality quiz. As much as I hate to admit it, these are all pretty true. Just talk to me for ten minutes and see how long I stay on-topic... that should show you how right this whole doodle was.

Oh Monty....

We were so peaceful, you an I. I was scratching your tummy, my paint-by-number on my lap listening to NPR's podcast of the SXSW preview. You were happily grunting to yourself until, that is, you decided to get up and wreak havoc on my room.

The calm before the storm.
The aftermath.

I had carefully set my film canister lid full of paint, carefully mixed from the different containers in precise ratios, on my floor. You then decided to walk right through it. I didn't realize what had happened until I notice your attractively pink trail, wandering through my room. In a blind panic I grabbed for you.

But no, you sir are to quick for me.

With a great THUMP you launch yourself away from me by slamming your paint-laden feet into my stomach. My eyes bulge as I watch you sail through the air, free with your pink toes. With blinding speed a shoot after you and catch you in mid-air. It's true, you may be a ninja-bunny, but I'm the master. You scrabble at my arms, leaving behind sweeping pink smears up my sleeves.

Now you sit in your cage, convinced that I'm after you for no good reason, unaware that your feet contain damning pink paint that now decorates my oatmeal colored carpet. My hands are pink, my shirt, I think, is irrevocably Montied and somehow my left eyebrow is also pink and all I can do is sit here and laugh every time I look at my carpet.

The stain remover has taken care of the mess, but the look on your face as I suddenly tackled you is imprinted in my memory forever.

Bleh

I've been slightly productive today. I made myself some rice for lunch (my food supply is getting dangerously boring, about all I have left is half a box of cereal, some rice, a bag of potatoes and pancake mix) played with Monty, finished my homework for The Fifties: Fab and Fraught, worked my way through most of my ASL II homework and now I'm knitting a mitten pattern that I'm making up as I go with some yarn I splurged on yesterday (it's called Lobster Mix, how could I NOT buy it?!). But all of those things involved sitting. And I've been sitting for the majority of the last week. So I decided to go for a short bike ride. I'm talking epically short. But hey, it's better than nothing, right? The clouds started to go away and there was even some blue sky peaking out so I decided to bundle up and head out. The minute I crossed Eastside the rain started. I heroically decide to keep going to the end of Fir which is what I had in mind all along. Once I turn on to Fir it REALLY starts to rain. My pants get soaked and my nose started acting like a drain spout for the rest of my cranium, channeling the water coming in onto the top of my head through the holes in my helmet. I get to the end of Fir and peddle as fast as I can back to the safety of the garage. The minute I pull into the driveway the rain stops and the sun comes back out. I huff and kerfuffle my way around the garage, sulky that the weather decided to mess with me and my brief exercise.

I think this is a sign that I'm just not meant to shift myself from a slouchy-sitting position on the couch. The cookie crumbs on my shirt leftover from the sacrificial cookie I nabbed from the freezer agree with me. Damn.

Banana Bread

I just pulled the bread out of the oven and, if I do say so myself, it's pretty darn good. I stuck some orange flavored cranberries in there and it's even better than I thought it would be (I accidentally got the ORANGE cranberries at Trader Joe's a while ago and I don't like them by themselves so I've been trying to find a way of using them so this was perfect). Right now Monty is trying to climb into my face because he smells the bananas but he doesn't like the bread they're baked in. It's pretty cute, but his sharp rabbit-talons keep scraping my neck. He's a persistent little bugger.

Looking so innocent, just after he tried to chew a hole in my shirt because he smelled banana.

Today

Today started off alright. It wasn't great, nothing exceptional, just ok. I had my oatmeal, put Monty in the yard and read five chapters of The Fifties by David Halberstam for class.* At about 2:30 Star told me to meet her at the Olympia Transit center at 3 so I threw some clothes on, scooped Mr. Monty up and put him away and then walked into town. I took a different way through my neighborhood than I usually do and as I got to Eastside road I spotted two VERY cool things in people's yards. On my left I spotted a bunny cage with a very large and very happy looking black rex rabbit, so we have rabbit's in our neighborhood! And I also spotted someone with two chickens in a pen, happily chirping to themselves about all the tastey bugs the rain was driving out of the ground. Both of these things made me very happy. My day was slowly moving up to "pretty good". I made it to town exactly when it started to rain for serious which bumped up my mood from "pretty good" to "I'm pretty damn talented" because it takes talent to out walk imminent rain in Oly. I met Star outside of The Reef diner and we headed south towards Canvas Works (which was the whole point of this little journey). On the way we stopped in at this little shop called the Tea Lady that sells all things tea. I saw this (I almost died, trust me) white tea pot in the shape of a chickadee. I love it so much that I think I might have to go back tomorrow and get it. I won't use it, which is what kept me from getting it instantly, but I can't stop thinking about it which is a sure sign that I think I need it. I really do. Sigh...
Anyway, we went in so I could try to oogle the price and I saw this little white ceramic piggie pourer. Star got him for me for a birthday/helping her move present and now I have the beginnings of a nice little ceramics collection.
All of this bumped today into the "unreal" realm. After all this we went to the yarn store. I really want to make this sweater (photo 1, photo 2) so I went a-hunting for the yarn. Turns out the yarn that works is about 8.50 per skein. I need about 8 skeins. So.... as much as I want to and as badly as I want it, I just can't justify that right now. Maybe if I get the library job I applied for, but between gas and other things I have to wait. The good thing about knitting is that the yarn doesn't really go bad, and I'll always have the pattern so I can come back to that dream another day. I did get two balls of yarn though because they were gorgeous colors and the only two left, THAT was justifiable, I guess. I also got some more wool roving so I can make some more critters and maybe put them up on etsy.
I visited Star's newly unpacked and arranged room at her new house. I got to play with Mitmit (I think that's the cat's name (one of four)) who is a very tiny and very angular kitty. I took the bus home, got a little wet but it worked out well. I got in the door and remembered that I put some of the bananas I'd stuck in the freezer when they went past yellow out on the counter for banana bread (I don't like them once they pass green, but since Monty is such a big fan of morning bananas I've been putting them on my cereal so I don't taste the non-greenness as much, but these had gone past yellow into the brown/black range so I froze them, hoping they wouldn't self-destruct in the freezer) and just left them there to go meet Star. The bananas had melted and turned into weird slug/flaccid nastiness in brown water in their bag. I was a little squimish but it's nothing compared to cleaning out the shower drain for the first time in about eight months (something else I did recently, but let's just say that that wasn't something that needed to have its picture taken, so no blog). I sucked up my courage and closed my eyes as I dumped what looked like banana-scented intestines into a measuring cup and mashed away. I put in the two eggs that the recipe called for and got a bit of sick delight as it turned into a crazy science fair experiment. The mad scientist in me comes out when I'm baking so as gross as the bananas looked, I kind of wish there were more to play with.
The banana bread is in the oven, I'm in my cozy socks with a hot cup of chai + cocoa and marshmallows next to me, Monty is napping on top of my feet, licking my ankle occasionally and I have my new favorite song Sentimental Heart by She & Him playing.
It's been a good day.

*this book by the way, is amazingly detailed and easy to read. Who knew so many things happened in the Fifties? Well, they did.

Bees Knees

So I'm officially registered for Beekeeping class on Tuesday mornings. I think this'll be AMAZING. Star is in the class with me and we get to spend two hours a week on the campus Organic Farm wearing bee suits and messing with some hives. Plus, all of this is in the Spring which is gorgeous in Olympia.

So my official, final class schedule, as opposed to the one I posted in March, for Spring is this:
For a total of 16 credits I'll have class on:

Monday: 6-9:30
Tuesday: 10-12, 3-5 and 5:30-9:30
Wednesday: 6-9:30
Thursday: 3-5

One of the cool things is that the Research class from 5:30-9:30 only meets for five weeks and then we're done, so pretty much once April is done I will have a better, more manageable schedule. Cuz the way things are here, Tuesdays are grueling.

At the end of the beekeeping class (and if I pass all the tests during the quarter) I should have an apprentice beekeeping license, which would rock.

Etsy-licious

I've been feeling really crafty lately. I think it's because now that school's started I don't really have time, but I WANT the time I don't have. So I've been greedily looking at other people's craftiness in my spare time on etsy.com. I think I'll infect some of you with the craft bug too!

Here are some of my favorite shops:

Morning Glori (little stuffed critters)
Tiny Meat (wallets)
Liza Rietz (cool hats)
Bibelot Forest (funky skinny-legged creatures)
Fantastic Toys (funky paper crafts)
Mary and Jane (the bling bling)
Kim Westad (pottery, of the neat variety)
Ali J (illustrations)
Wawaya (little bunny creatures)
Lupin (felted goodness)
Simone Walsh (jewelry)
Kniffin Pottery (awesomely creepy baby pottery)
John Clark (cool printwork)
Squidge (quirky little pig-dog people)
Spiderbite Boutique (Monster Books!)
Fiery Lion Designs (jewelry)
The Black Apple (artwork and plushies)
These are all shops of people who I like all of there work. I like some things individually of others, but sometimes these get taken down so I won't post them. I think you can see my favorites through my shop on etsy.
My shop:
Hammy (knitted things, and more to come once I get up off my lazy-bones and do it).

Oh Charlie

I laughed and laughed and laughed.

Welcome to Evergreen

I had my first day of my Doing Research class tonight. We came up with some rough and vague topics for research for the next five weeks:

- Women in Washington State Legislature
- Bipolar Disorder
- Transgendered parenting
- Pack behavior in canines
- Organizational Change
- Lost years of Jesus/Historical Jesus
- Spanish Civil War
- Deaf Culture
- Self-help Books
- Food insecurity in America
- Marketing

RRRRrrrraaaaaaaaaannddoommmmmmm.

Now, these are the topics we came up with during the first 4o minutes of our 4 hour class. We kind of messed around with them, did some exercises and I wound up with the slightly narrower question "How is language used within the education system?" More specifically, I want to look at the words the school officials use to define deafness and how that shapes their policy with dealing with children with disabilities within their schools. In the Puget Sound area, and in many places within the U.S. there are deaf schools set up. Deaf students from the surrounding school districts are sent to these schools, however, once the schools realize how much money is spent on the transportation, education and the materials for these students that could be spent within their own schools, the children are usually recalled back to the public schools. Only deaf students with behavioral problems are sent to special residential schools. Anywho, that's what I came up with after four hours. I have five weeks to change my mind and mess about with it some more.