I'd love to pick up a copy of "The Folklore of Discworld", but it's available only in the UK, and Amazon.com in the US wants $70 for it! Would any of my UK friends be interested in sending a copy to me? I can pay you by PayPal, or by credit card on the amazon.co.uk site, have it shipped to you and then pay you to ship it to me, whatever works best :) (I'd love to pick up the Streets of Ankh-Morpork as well.)

Wish TP was more popular in the US, or at least that the US publishers would pick up all his stuff.

ETA: Thanks, everyone! I got a reply via Facebook, so yay!

I just got the *worst* push-poll I've ever heard. It was from "CPRAction", funded by NOM (National Organization for Marriage), and it made me *so* angry! They introduce the call with the note about the NH senate approving same-sex marriageThey ask (robocall): "Do you agree that marriage between only one man and one woman should be legal?"

Which, of course, sounds like you're being asked if heterosexual marriage should be legal. Well, duh. Why not?

But I couldn't just say yes, because they want their poll to say "99% of respondents believe that only heterosexual marriage should be legal!"

So I said "That's a very poorly worded question."

And the robot said "You must answer yes or no."

So I said "No."

Then it asked if I'd donated to a campaign, church, religious organization, or other non-profit groups. Well, I have -- quite a lot of the first and last categories, actually -- so I said yes.

And then it asked for demographics. "Are you male?" (Because that's the default, of course.) "No." "Are you above the age of 50?" "No." "This concludes our call. This poll has been funded by CPR Action and the National Organization for Marriage."

I yelled, "You suck!!" into the receiver but there was no human to hear me.

Damned robots. Damned NOM. How twisted is this so-called "poll" going to turn out, the way they've worded it?

Happy Easter if you celebrate it. I hope this isn't offensive; I thought it was really funny, but I'm not coming from the Christian perspective.

Created by Train Horns

I can hear it, but DH can't. Hmm.

Here's a little perspective :D

http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2009/02/the_evolution_of_life_in_60_se.php

Makes you think about Time and our place in it.

At this rate, I may finish by Valentine's day. Though I haven't knit a stitch today. It's already almost as tall as David!

I knew it had been almost a year since we officially fell in love with this house, but I didn't realize it was more than a year already. Looking at last year's entries, it appears we put an offer on it on 1 February, 2008. What a rollercoaster that was! I'm really happy with the house, though, despite the moldy basement and its other little quirks.

For whatever reason, David keeps looking at NNEREN and pointed this one out to me yesterday: http://www.nneren.com/view2.php?id=2735688&ref=r&price=$319,000.00&t=&fcla=
Is that not completely gorgeous? And we could have swung it, too. A pity it's a year too late! Then again, the listing says "...the home invites its new owners to return it to its original splendor" which to me says, "Get yourself a Home Depot account, because you're gonna need it!" Still, wow.

I seriously need to go back and tag those entries. And make a house icon. It's been a year, after all.

Audio only, and not exactly safe for work if you're playing it out loud.



Do listen all the way through to the end; the last minute is awesome.

Hurray! The commission has added a one year stay of execution on the CPSIA -- the provisions are still in effect, but testing is not mandatory on most items. So we're in the clear until Feb 10, 2010, by which time the guidelines should be much clearer and based in actual science, instead of scaremongering.

Thank you to everyone who wrote and called the CPSC and their representatives -- I really think that made all the difference.

2008 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

Everyone wants safer toys and other items for their kids -- there's no question of that. So in 2008, Congress approved the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, a sweeping reform of current safety legislation. Sounds great, right? Now our kids can be protected from lead and phthalates in numerous products, and who on earth would vote against that?

Well, the trouble is the broad scope of the legislation. It doesn't target only plastic or lead-painted toys from China. It targets every single item made and sold in the United States that will be used on or around children. Whether you're a giant corporation importing toys, or a tiny garage business making wooden toys, or, like me, a mom sewing slings to help pay her mortgage, everything has to be tested. Testing for lead costs more than $100 per item. And this means, every fabric, every color, every different color of ring, has to be tested for lead. For me, that means a conservative estimate of $8000, based on my current fabric inventory (add another $2000+ if I add more colors or fabrics in the future, which I will need to do eventually). I would also need to test zippers and snaps -- each different color -- so I would be looking at around $10,000 (minimum) in testing. That's a huge portion of my annual profits.

Obviously, that is totally unsustainable for a small business, or even a big one. My business, along with pretty much every single other cottage industry, would be forced to close down, or face fines of $100,000 and even jail time for violating this law.

This goes for other textile items as well... including knit hats, blankets, cloth diapers, stuffed animals and other plush, and boutique clothing. *Every* WAHM producing anything of that nature will be affected by the law. Keep in mind that lead levels in fabric are already low -- on the order of <10ppm. The standards right now are 900ppm, falling to 90ppm in the future. Even at that level, the vast majority of fabrics would pass... but the act doesn't specify that fabrics are exempt.

The economic impacts this law has on business in America cannot be understated. One gentleman has gone so far as to dub the day the testing provisions go into effect (Feb 10, 2009) "National Bankruptcy Day", because any business that hasn't tested its products will be unable to even liquidate its inventory (since untested products are assumed to be full of lead and thus hazardous), leading to mass bankruptcies. That's NOT what our already-shrinking economy needs right now.

The law was well-intentioned, to keep children from getting sick and dying from lead poisoning. But it ignores the fact that the vast majority of lead-tainted products were from large manufacturers, almost universally imported from Asia, and instead puts this impossible testing standard squarely on the backs of small American businesses, the very ones that Americans *want* to shop with right now for their record of safety and honesty. What this act will end up doing is making it impossible for small businesses to compete (since the costs of testing will have to be passed on to consumers, and small businesses will pay disproportionately compared to big ones), and limiting the choices Americans have in their shopping.

These sites offer more information:

• Handmade toy alliance
  
• Fashion Incubator
  
• Petition to the Consumer Products Safety Commission
  
• National Bankruptcy Day
• WAHM Solutions

If you value small businesses and handmade products, I urge you to contact your representatives, sign the petition above, and email the CPSC and let them know that this act is *not* what you want. Handmade products are historically far safer than imported, mass-produced ones, yet the latter will be all that is left in the marketplace if the act goes into effect as written.

Of course I had to take both versions.

Why do you ask?

I got my first email account in 1992 -- it required a computer science major to help me set it up, since all the settings were manual. When emailing, I had to type in a lot of the stuff that's now behind-the-scenes.

1992, 17 years ago, was half of my life ago.

I feel old.

This is after, what, a week or so?

I'm hoping to be done by Valentine's day, but maybe not.

Ooooh, this stuff is *wonderful*! I got the "comfy" yarn, a 75% pima cotton, 25% acrylic blend, and it feels soooo nice to the touch -- very silky. I'm going to enjoy knitting with it, I think. The materials (well, plus a pair of circular needles because they were pretty and bumped me up to free shipping) were $51.63. A lot for a scarf, but since it's for my honey, it's okay :)


Yarn!

Will try to photoblog this as I progress, just for the hell of it.

I'm sure I do this every couple of years...

The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.

Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.

How did the Belief-O-Matic do?

1.	Secular Humanism (100%)
2.	Unitarian Universalism (92%)
3.	Nontheist (74%)
4.	Liberal Quakers (72%)
5.	Theravada Buddhism (71%)
6.	Neo-Pagan (59%)
7.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (53%)
8.	New Age (44%)
9.	Taoism (41%)
10.	Orthodox Quaker (34%)
11.	Reform Judaism (34%)
12.	Mahayana Buddhism (33%)
13.	Scientology (27%)
14.	New Thought (25%)
15.	Baha'i Faith (22%)
16.	Sikhism (22%)
17.	Jainism (21%)
18.	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (19%)
19.	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (17%)
20.	Seventh Day Adventist (12%)
21.	Hinduism (11%)
22.	Jehovah's Witness (11%)
23.	Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (11%)
24.	Eastern Orthodox (9%)
25.	Islam (9%)
26.	Orthodox Judaism (9%)
27.	Roman Catholic (9%)

I'm sort of weirded out that "nontheist" came 3rd, after UU! Must have been my insistence on civil right and the environment?

Guess I need a Humanist sticker for my car.

Okay, the universe wants me to make David a Dr. Who scarf.

I was reading my Google Reader feeds and clicked on a pattern for a neat looking scarf. While I was checking it out, David glanced over and said, "Oh! Could you make me a Dr. Who scarf?"

So I googled it and found www.doctorwhoscarf.com (who knew?) and spent about 10 minutes checking it out before going back to Google Reader. Read a few more articles, scrolled down... and there was this.

So, clearly, I am meant to make this scarf.

However, I'm not sure quite how. I mean, I have the directions (he wants the season 15 version), but I'm not sure about the yarn. Wool makes me itch, and him, too, so I'm stuck with non-woollen yarns. The directions call for a sport or DK weight yarn, and I would prefer to use something that feels nicer than the cheapo "pound of yarn" crap (I hate that stuff). OTOH, it's a *crapload* of yarn, and I don't want to pay more than, oh, say, $50 for the yarn. I can't tell exactly from the pattern, but it looks like I need between 200 and 400 yards each of 7 colors.  Of course, the pattern calls for it to be between 10-12" wide, and David wants something about half that width (and maybe shorter, once he sees how very long it is), so I guess I don't need quite as much.

Knitters, do you have recommendations for nice-feeling but not bank-breaking yarns? I like working with soft but not too stretchy yarns; have had success with a lovely chenille I got at my LYS, but it was years ago and I don't remember what it was called.

Got a love/hate relationship with Twilight? (Um, yeah, I don't or anything, heh. Nope, not me...)

You've got to read this :lol:

Prognosis: Happy Jan!

Now I just have a crapzillion emails and whatnot to catch up on.

Power was restored on Saturday afternoon, 9 days after we lost it. It's SO nice to be able to flip a switch and get light! And have heat and refrigerator power without running a generator.

Our phone line (and internet) was just fixed about 30 minutes ago. I am triaging email, and need to remember to turn off my autoresponders now. It's been a wild ride, to say the least.

So, internet peeps, what have I missed?