Picturesque Felines

Some random pictures of my kitties - Izzy (brown) and Opie (orange and white) :D







I wish I could sleep like these pictures...




Speaking of sleep, goodnight all! ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

Perfection

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.
- Anne Quindlein

Gagafied

Ok, ok. I apologize because I don't have any crafts to share with you right now, but I swear I'm working on them! I've been out of town many times this past month and haven't been able to spend as much time knitting/crocheting/whatever than I have before. The break has been both good and bad - good in that I am able to avoid burnout and bad because now I feel as if I have a ton of catching up to do. With that said, here's another random post featuring a group of youtube videos :).

Whether you love her or hate her, you have to have an opinion on Lady Gaga. Sure she's a pop machine, but maybe the point of all her music, crazy antics, ridiculously creative stage performances is that the pop music culture has become too cookie cutter and predictable. Her music may fit the sound of pop music, but her performances, music videos, and fashion are what keep people talking. I have a prediction with Lady Gaga that once her Gaga persona gets to be outgrown or grow cold, it will be "killed off" in favor of a newer, fresher one (a la Madonna). Who knows. I can't help but be fascinated with Gaga.

As an example, here are some of her music videos. Most of her videos are so over the top, that you just can't help but watch them for the first time and think "...what the hell was that" (at least that's what I tend to say to myself). With more viewings, they may not necessarily make more sense (well, maybe a little bit - if that's possible) but they are so innately creative that I can't help but keep looking for more.

Just an FYI, I am not responsible for the ridiculousness of these videos, so consider yourself warned! With that said, join me in saying "...what the hell?" as I post some Gaga-licious videos!

Alejandro (released today, June 8th, 2010)


Paparazzi (currently at 22 millions views)


Telephone (at 31 million views)


And my favorite, Bad Romance (now at 222 million views and counting)


In the random spirit of this post, here's a website featuring pancakes in various forms!

Bacon and Eggs pancakes!


A biplane pancake?


And lastly...TETRIS-CAKES!


In that vein, also head on over to one of my most favorite blogs ever, Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Horribly, Hilariously Wrong! I can spend HOURS on this site, no joke, and still keep coming back for more.

Example. An adorably cute baby cake!


"What's so bad about this cake?" one might ask. It's the cutting of the cake that the problem occurs...

Anyone want a piece of a baby cake? I think I'll pass...

Alright, I'm done rehashing other blogs, haha. I'll leave you with a picture of one reason why I enjoy living near the Great Lakes! Taken from my camera phone.

Still Seeing in Double Vision

I just finished the next step of the Double Vision Blanket: I'm done with the 3rd "L"! This brings the total square count up to 51! I'm past the halfway point of the square making and am glad! I have 49 to go!



I need to add a black border on the one side of the "L" and tuck in the yarn ends. Once those are done, I will begin the home stretch of the project! It's starting to be a little monotonous, so I'm trying to put some other projects while I'm making this blanket. Ironically enough, one of them is another blanket (block of the month). Oh well.

Here's some videos I have from "So You Think You Can Dance?". These are four of my favorite dances they've had on the show that I've come across.

The first one is a more upbeat and intense routine that is a sort of a "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" dance.


The next two are both more similar in theme. This one is to "Calling You" by Celine Dion and choreographed by Mia Michaels.

And this one is to "Dancing" by Elisa. It features Lacey Schwimmer who was also on Dancing with the Stars.


Last but not least is "Time" choreographed by Mia Michaels. This routine is very touching and well done. Gives me chills, too. This also features Lacey Schwimmer.

Recovery

This week, I stumbled across a project on Ravelry. I recently joined this group that specializes in charity knitting and contains a ton of different projects group members can participate in. There are some that are applicable to me and some that aren't, but one really stuck out to me. It's called the Recovery Buddies Project and focuses on creating, basically, smiley face pillows that are sent to those in recovery from various forms of mental illness. It was posted on the Ravelry group because the project leaders have a large wait list and they cannot keep up with the need for these buddies. Since I need a momentary distraction from the Double Vision Blanket, I put these on my to do list. The summary of the project from their blog describes it better than I have:

The Recovery Buddies Project is a team of people from around the world who hand knit "recovery buddies" to help people through a variety of addictions including eating disorders, self-injury as well as others. We strive to remind people that they are not alone in their addictions, and that they don't have to be alone in their recovery.

If you go to the website, you can see pictures of the different buddies that have been created throughout the project. Each buddy has a name and a story in order to make it a more personal experience for the recipients. I made two buddies in the last three days and will send them soon. They knit up very quickly and were a very easy project.



Making these buddies had me thinking - why don't I base their "stories" on people I know? I decided to take my own twist on that and base them off of people that have hurt me and I have had trouble forgiving. Although I didn't name them directly after the people, I won't post any more information on them or the stories because I don't want that information floating around blogland. In addition, I obviously don't want the actual buddies to have any negativity for the people they are intended for, so I wrote stories that pointed out the positive aspects of these people that I need help forgiving. I think that they are symbols about how I can turn my own hurt into something that will hopefully help someone heal from their own struggles. For some reason forgiveness is sometimes a confusing subject to me because it balances on the line of letting go of the pain caused in part by others and protecting yourself from future hurt. I think it's fair to say that forgiveness is a form of recovery, and that we are all in pursuit of recovery in one way or another.

"Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it."
- Mark Twain

The Lost/Dixie/Rainbow Connection

Tonight is the airing of the second to last episode of Lost. It answered some questions (more so than most of the episodes so far) and, I think, did a decent job setting the stage for the series finale this Sunday. Although I'm not a Lost fanatic, I do have some theories that I wonder about for the finale and will try to be concise in explaining. I believe that Jacob and the Man in Black are, in addition to being a "good and evil" pairing, that they reflect both the obsessions with human nature (MIB) and the innate goodness of humans (Jacob). Also, I believe that Kate is going to play an integral role and end up being the "protector" of the island in the end. All of the survivors ended up on the island by accident, so why can't the protector of the island become the protector by accident? Additionally, out of the "flash sideways" sequences, Kate has the least to live for off the island than the other candidates, so it would makes sense that she would rather be somewhere she belongs rather than a pursued criminal off island. In the present time, she took care of Aaron after leaving the island, but without him, there's no reason to go back. That's the end of my Lost rant. I just wanted to write all this down before the finale airs. I'm sure I'm completely wrong on all counts, but at least this show is getting wrapped up before it gets even more complicated (if that's possible).

In random news, I made my first phone call to Indonesia to my friend Diana today. Talk about crazy. I joked with her that 20 years ago it would be much more difficult to even think about making a phone call that far away. It cost me less than $2 to talk with her on her cell phone for 10 minutes. With email, skype, and other technological advances, it makes it feel like she isn't that far away since I can just call her up on my computer (well it's a little more complicated than that, but still, this technology stuff is really great).

The last Netflix documentary I watched was "Shut Up and Sing" about the Dixie Chicks. This documentary follows the group from the time of the start of the scandal to the tour and album afterward. I think the whole debate brings up a great argument of freedom of speech in that an offhand comment at a concert can cause a culture (country music) to boycott and turn their backs on one of their beloved groups at the time. Regardless of how you view the original comment, the media circus that followed and blew things out of proportion threatened to ruin the careers of these women. The comment had happened on their world tour, so it took a while for the group to perform in the United States due to the international tour schedule. Despite their worries, the first concert was greeted with cheers and applause by the audience while a group of protesters practiced their right to free speech outside. Instead of ruining their careers, they come back with a Grammy award winning song and album. The scrutiny surrounding this album put a lot of pressure for them to even decide what kind of music they wanted to pursue. One of the parts in the documentaries describes a death threat Natalie Maines had in Dallas and how they still went on with the show despite the risk. Interesting documentary.

Here's one of my favorite songs from them that is lesser known (from what I can tell). Slightly depressing, but I think it's thought provoking about things like faith, how we treat those around us, and our legacy after we are gone. It describes a man who was mistreated by his mother, thus taking out the lack of love on his wife and daughter. Even without the music video, the song is really hauntingly beautiful (duh, good music shouldn't need a video). With just the song, it can be a lyrical take on someone who didn't have faith in their life (to a higher power or what have you) and is realizing that they should have done things differently in retrospect.


Top of the World by the Dixie Chicks



This week marked the 20th anniversary of Jim Henson's death (May 16) and the 30th anniversary of the Mount St. Helen's eruption (May 18). I put one of my favorite Dixie Chicks songs up, so now I am putting my favorite Henson song here.

Rainbow Connection with Kermit


And to end this post, I'll add two songs that were sung at Jim Henson's memorial service. I watched a few of these videos and the whole service is incredibly touching. It's both a celebration and a mourning of someone's life.

AHH This Blanket is Nuts!

Good news! The second "L" is done! I had a chance to go down to Texas to visit my sister. We ended up driving there which is both good and bad. It's really bad because it is a very long and (mostly) boring drive from Michigan to Texas and we usually have to split it into two days. The good news is that it gave me a ton of time to work on some more of the double vision blanket. I finished 18 squares total on the trip! With the second "L" done plus one more square, I have 37 squares finished! CRAZY. I still love this blanket so far, although tucking in ends and doing the black edging are both extremely tedious. I'm lucky that the blanket is a complex enough pattern that it keeps me engaged, but is not too complicated to be frustrating. There are times in the pattern I thought "WTF, how do I do that?", but I always seemed to figure it out...so far.

OMG SECOND "L"!


I feel like this blanket is going to be more and more difficult to photograph the bigger it gets. It's supposed to be about 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) square when finished. I already had to stand on a couch to get this picture and if you look at it, you'll realize when I finish the squares, it will be out of this picture. I'll have to figure out something to do. Until then, I'll work on trying to conquer this beast.

I bought some Texas based yarn when I was visiting my sister. It's a Madeline Tosh worsted yarn in a very pretty green. I don't have any pictures of it (or any ideas for it) yet, but soon....very soon I'm sure I'll figure out something.

I also got to go walking with some flamingos at the zoo when I was down there. I'm not going to say what zoo (because it's "behind the scenes"), but those are some of the perks you get when you have a family member as a zookeeper ;).