Saturday, January 14, 2006
There's this show on the Trinity Broadcasting Newtowrk with Kirk Cameron and some British guy in it. Has anyone seen this? Each episode is about some Biblical topic that they introduce. Then they do this Jay Leno-ish thing where they talk to people out on the street and ask them questions in an attempt to make them look foolish and/or contradictory. Leno really only attempts to make people look foolish, when he does it. You know what I mean, right? Like when Leno goes out and shows someone a picture of someone, say Karl Rove, and people can't identify the person in the picture, but they can identify a picture of Cap'n Crunch, and the lesson is that people are stupid. I do not agree with this conclusion or method, by the way. But Kirk Cameron--actually, it's the British guy who goes out and talks to people. I guess Kirk is afraid people will hassle him and ask how Ben and Carol are or some crap. So yeah, the British guy goes out and asks people questions in an attempt to make them look foolish on camera.
In the last episode that I saw, the topic was something dealing with people who go to church and pretend they're religious, but then go out and very obviously do things in violation of their belief system. I, a staunch atheist, actually think this is a very good topic. If you think that hell is real, then you sure better do what you believe will keep you away from it, right? Otherwise, who are you impressing by telling that you are religious, when you are not so much? See, I don't believe in anything, so I can do what I want. {g} So anyway, they send out the British guy and he asks people if they believe in God and hell and they say yes and he asks them how they stay away from it. Most, if not all, say that the Ten Commandments (the actual listing, not the film, I GUESS. I'm not religious, remember?) will keep them out of hell. So he asks them to name as many as they can, they do, and then he asks if they hold to all of them. There's always at least one that they violate. So he then takes the opportunity to rub their faces in it, "What would you do if you died tonight? You'd go to hell!" and whatever. Again, I hate this Jay Leno approach to telling someone that you think their priorities are wrong. Oh, I also hate how they said that finding someone attractive is commmitting adultery with your mind, and you can go to hell for that. That's bogus. Lighten up, man! (God's a man, right? I mean, he has a beard, right? The one thing I know about God is that he has a beard, and I can't see a woman-god with a beard going over very well.) That shouldn't be illegal. Most of hte time, that's all you've got. Am I right or am I right?
So my point is that you can watch Mike Seaver tell us how we're all going to hell on TBN.
Quiz result time!
You scored as Edmund Pevensie.
Edmund Pevensie
80% Mr. Beaver
67% Mr. Tumnus
67% Ginarrbrik
63% Peter Pevensie
60% Susan Pevensie
60% The White Witch
53% Lucy Pevensie
50% Aslan
47% Mrs. Beaver
40% Oreius
40%
Which Chronicles of Narnia character are you most like?
created with QuizFarm.com
My first reaction to this is shock and surprise! But honestly, it probably is the best choice. I have unintentionally or even intentionally hurt people I love and then I feel like garbage about it afterward. There ya go. I shall learn from it and grow.
The rest of this post is about knitting, so you might want to just get away while you can.
For Christmas, I got Stitch 'N' Bitch from Nate's dad and Nate's dad's woman. I am excited about this, because I am extremely close to finishing my only other knitting book, Kids Knitting, which I chose, because learning to knit was really intimidating for me. The knitting method that's taught in Kids Knitting isn't specific to right- or left-handed people, says the book. It teaches you to just pick up the yarn and drop it again, after each stitch. So that's how I learned to knit. And knit, I did. Tonight, I might just finished my first sweater. But anyway, I've broken into Stitch 'N' Bitch already, and that book teaches actual knitting methods, English and Continental. According to the book, English is the most popular in this country. I tried it, and it felt really wrong to me, so I tried Continental and that, oddly, feels much more comfortable. I assume it's because it's closer to the adapted way I learned in the first book. Instead of dropping the yarn each time, I started to wind it around my left hand, sometimes. So yeah, I am a Continental knitter, even if it's unpopular or at least more common to the lefties and Germans. It's really important for my readers to know that I am not left-handed. Oh God, no! Me? Hell no! But German? Yes, somewhat, but I've been brought up to say "Pennsylvania Dutch" instead of German.
English knitting is really too out of control for me. I now realize that some lady on the bus was showing me English knitting awhile ago. There's a post about it in the archives someplace. On my way home from Philadelphia one day, this old lady thought my knitting was crazy or for left-handed people or both. She took my knitting away from me and showed me how she does it. She tucked it in her armpit and started knitting really quickly. It looked confusing to me. I can't do that. It's not in me. I think if I had been taught to knit that way, I'd never have learned in the first place.
Oh, in Stitch 'N' Bitch, they say that you can make patterns out of knits and purls. Their example is a heart-pattern, which I knitted Continentally and gave to my mom. Then I knit myself a picture of a Triforce. I'll post a picture of it, once I finally change the batteries in my camera.
Does anyone else who reads this knit? How do you do it?
posted by Beth at 11:04:00 PM
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Wuh. This Rufus Wainwright album (Want Two) has got me feeling all strange and depressed. It’s a very good album. Maybe my favorite? But I should probably relisten to the others before making such a claim.
Okay, maybe it isn’t the album that’s got me feeling strange and depressed, unless the album was a trigger or something. But something made me think of something I heard someone at school say about why same-sex marriage shouldn’t be legalized. So now that thought is floating around in my head and making me feel kind of bad in general. People can say ridiculously horrible things and not even realize it.
So onto other things…
New Year’s Eve was kind of good and kind of less good. The best part was seeing Erin. She had dinner with Nathan and me. This wasn’t really planned out too much, and was mostly last-minute on everyone’s part, but it made me happy. She is one of my favorite bowls of milk. She goes in the plus column. The first TMBG show also goes in the first plus column. But in the minus column, I must put the fact that the North Six let everyone in a full hour later than they were supposed to (it’s a good thing we got there kind of late, because I no longer wish to stand outside of buildings in the cold). But the setlist was pretty good, and I didn’t even mind being almost as far back as possible. At the end, they passed out lyrics to Auld Lang Syne, and even though it was only 10:something, we all sang it. To me, it honestly felt like the nicest New Year’s Eve moment possibly ever. I can’t really describe it, but it was emotional and warm and I felt a sense of togetherness with the audience (that’s something I don’t really feel much of, most of the time). Sadly, I must put the second show in the minus column. But first, I put the North Six in the minus column again, if that’s possible, because they made us all wait outside again for a long time, taking forever to check IDs and will-call lists. That show started at something like 11:57 instead of 11:30. Midnight happened, and we sang Auld Lang Syne again (I had my lyrics from the first show, and some guy saw them and exclaimed, “You have the lyrics?!” like I brought them from home, because I am such an Auld Lang Syne fanatic), but it was only a third as magical as it was the first time. It felt rushed. The entire second show was rushed, and I still blame North Six for this. But the setlist was almost exactly the same, and I blame TMBG for this. Oh well, I’m not feeling very cranky about it anymore.
On the PATH train home, I saw this pretty woman in a white, furry coat and pink gloves come onto the train with a creepy man. She took an empty seat near where I was standing and cried into her hands the whole time, while the guy just stood near her, not saying anything. I felt and still feel really bad for her. I will never know what that’s about, but I’m blaming the guy. Crying is bad enough, but being made to cry on a holiday, in public when you’re supposed to be having fun is just horrendous. The image of her curled up in her seat and quietly crying into her hands is burned into my brain.
More other things…
So far, I’ve worked ten hours/two days at my internship. I think I’ve mostly done well, aside from a couple things I could have done better. They’re very friendly, and it’s a nice place, so I want to please them and be a valuable worker. I hope they put me in the plus column.
I finally started watching my Arrested Development season 1 DVDs. I think I love that show more and more every second. And I now have a weird fondness for Buster.
Is it wrong of me to enjoy the Colbert Report far more than the Daily Show? Because that’s the way it’s going for me as of late. I never worked very hard to catch the Daily Show, but I find myself putting more effort into catching the Colbert Report. No offense to the Jon Stewart, of course. He’s in the plus column.
I now have shoulder-length hair. Good for me! The longer hair was holding me back from greatness. I can probably run faster now, too.
Last night, I had a nightmare about that new movie Hostel. All I know about it is that it’s a new horror movie that opens this weekend. I dreamt that I went to see it, and everyone was saying that while you’re watching the movie, someone sneaks up behind you and sticks a needle into the back of your head. I told everyone that that was just an urban legend, and even if it was true, that it only happened in Europe and Australia, so I was going to see it anyway. And I did, but I scrunched down really low in my seat. Then we all ran out of the theater for some reason and some other crap happened and I woke up.
I wish to knit myself a Michael Nesmith-style, green wool hat. I’ve been looking for a pattern or at least a decent picture. I’m really shooting for accuracy here. I mean, if I get it wrong (suppose I make it all in stockinette, when it’s really 1x1 ribbing or something?), then I’ll have random passersby telling me what I jackass I’ve been, youknowwhatI’msayin’? I don’t need that in my life.
posted by Beth at 12:53:00 AM
