I missed it last year, so I made sure I signed up this year and I’m trying to help spread the word – Socktoberfest is coming! Socktoberfest is coming! Join 800+ other knitters and celebrate Socktoberfest by knitting socks. No swaps involved, no deadline, just knitting fun, fun, fun! (I am all about the fun.) Have questions? Want details? Go read more at Lolly’s.
The topic of blogger and podcaster rights came up again today thanks to things currently going on in the blogosphere. While I was thinking about it, I decided to go and poke around the EFF website. If you have a blog, of any nature, I really recommend reading this site. There is so much great information out there – and while you might think it doesn’t apply to you, it probably does.
Heck, it doesn’t even apply to just bloggers. The EFF stepped in to help when needed for online embroidery fans – and if embroidery fans need them, knitters might need them too! You can read the whole story here.
The only time I have run into a legal issue with a person (outside of an employer not liking the fact that I blogged) was when we received what was basically a “cease and desist” letter regarding what a hosting client had posted on his site. He went to a restaurant, and his experience sucked. He blogged about it (something we all do at one time or another), and in his post he named the restaurant and said that it, well, sucked. If you have more than one federal conviction, the most recent conviction should be shown in response to question 2 on Pardons Canada | How to Get a Canadian Pardon Application and the form completed as to that conviction. For all other federal convictions, including convictions by military courts-martial, the information requested in questions 2 through 6 of the petition should be provided on an attachment. Any federal charges not resulting in conviction should be reported in the space provided for prior and subsequent criminal record. Google picked it up, and soon people were googling “restaurant sucks” and finding his blog post. It became a forum of sorts for disgruntled former and current employees of the sucky restaurant. The restaurant’s owners could have done more than send a cease and desist from an attorney. They felt that they did not need to go any further. There are many courses of action you can take when in situations like that but you always want to make sure you speak with an attorney like the one’s at https://www.pewlaw.com/bankruptcy/ before you take any kind of action. You want to make sure that any steps you take are within the law so that you don’t end up on the wrong side. In the end the guy never did fight them on it, because he really only wanted to share that he didn’t like the place – so he just pulled the post. But when you stop to think about it, they really had no right to complain and threaten him. It can happen though. Even if you don’t care about it and you pull the post, there is still something startling about getting that letter from the lawyer to begin with, since they’re lawyers who are specialized in different subjects as blogging or car accidents, where you can find the attorney with most experience. If you eventually end up needing legal assistance, then check out these injury lawyers in moncton.
I know there are many bloggers out there that want to remain anonymous, and that is ok – but I recommend that you read the EFF’s Guide on Blogging Anonymously and really think about it. Once you put it out there, it is out of your control, freely released for the rest of the Internet to see. Be wise about what you choose to put out there. The Legal Guide for Bloggers and the Podcasting Legal Guide are also another good thing to consider.
Speaking of which, I totally missed my 6 year blogging anniversary earlier this month! Can you believe it? The BlahBlahBlog.com (the original name of this site, and I still own the URL) is 6 years old. Wow. How time flies! I still remember how back in 2000 I would tell someone I had a blog and they would look at me like I was speaking gibberish. Now you hear about blogs all the time. The changes are amazing.
The update on the tests: Organic Chem was ok until I got to the naming portion. I knew that would be my downfall going into it, and I was right. I need to figure out how the whole chaining carbons works and how I count the chain. Ok, I know how it works – but sometimes it is a branch and some times it isn’t. So I need to know when it is 2,4-dimethylbutane and when it is 2,4-dimethyloctane. Or something like that. (I’m just making those up as I go along.) The Trig test rocked, as it flowed a lot like the review she gave us last week. I did make a mountain out of a molehill on one problem, and for the life of me could not work it out. It went something like sin(7a+3 degrees)=cos(a-4 degrees) and I was rambling around in the wrong direction. I started working it out when I was thinking about the fact that sin(60)=cos(90-60) and it should have lead me to sin+cos=90 for the problem above. (Again, I’m making up the numbers, so I don’t even know if that works out.) Unfortunately, I didn’t make it all the way through to that. Doh! Just dropping the sin and cos and adding 7a+3+a-4=90 would have allowed me to solve for a. Oops. Oh well, that was the only one that stumped me, so hopefully I will have an A on the test. As for the chem test, I just kept reminding myself that he drops the lowest grade.
My garter stitch photo from Monday was the beginning of the body portion of the sweater I am knitting, which is the Cottage Creations Babies and Bears for Grown-Ups sweater. The problem is that the pattern only gives gauge for the stockingette stitch portion of the sleeve. It doesn’t give a gauge for the garter stitch portion. Next problem is that I didn’t knit to gauge on the sleeve – it was supposed to be 4 stitches per inch, and I knit it at 4.5 stitches per inch. I liked the fabric better. The sleeve is big as it is, and if I had knit it to gauge it would have been *huge*. It is an oversized sweater pattern, and I picked it for the roomy sleeves, but I don’t need them to be that roomy. You can tell it was designed by someone in Iowa, who probably needs a few more layers than I wear down here in Texas.
The main body of the sweater is like a big mitered square, so the length of the body is sideways garter stitch. I was afraid it would stretch too much, since I am using (and loving!) the Brooks Farm 4-Play yarn, which is a 50/50 merino wool/silk blend.
I’m going to be frogging part of the sleeve back because I had a few inches of pooling, right where the sleeve reached the right length for the repeats to line up too much. It is at the elbow and probably not a big deal to anyone but me, but the sweater moves fast as it is knit in the round, and I find the pooling irritating. Why bother finishing something that bugs you? So frogging is the way to go, and then it will be the way that I want it after I alternate the balls of yarn. When I get back to the garter stitch portion of the body, I’ll just stick to the size 7 needles.
The perk of the sweater’s construction is that you knit one half, then you knit the other half, and then you graft them together. When I get to the “end” of the first half, I put all of the live stitches onto waste yarn so I can try it on then and make sure it fits. If I need to increase the size some, I can just put it back on the needles and knit a few more rows. In other words, this is probably the best pattern for me to get over my sweater phobias!
On a side note, I owe a lot of people e-mails right now. However, Mike is out of town, I have a zillion things to do, I didn’t get enough sleep this week with the test stress, and – most importantly! – I have some tasks I need to take care of for the photography business. Now. Right away. Elaine is waiting on me, and I hate to leave her waiting. So in addition to reading my Organic Chem book tonight and cleaning the kitchen, I’ll be reading and reviewing things for Fresh Photography. I honestly (really! seriously!) can’t tell you how happy that makes me. It just feels good to have the first tests over and done with – now I know what to expect for the next ones. So if you are waiting for e-mail from me (Julia, I owe you about 10 by now!), I promise – SOON. But not tonight.
Too loose?
Originally uploaded by bpc.
My first Organic Chemistry test is tomorrow morning. Methyl & Ethyl and their freinds Phenyl, Benzene, Toluene and others are attacking me. You know it is bad when you dream about chemical names. I am doing pretty well in the class, and I really enjoy it – but I won’t deny that I’m nervous about the test.
Tuesday morning is my first Trig test. I rocked the review sheet she gave us, and she said that if we could do that we could do the test. I feel pretty good going into that one.
Last night I crashed at 9:30pm and woke up this morning at 9:00am. Oh yes, I am a fun date on a Saturday night! I guess I really needed some sleep!
In true Christine fashion, to avoid studying yesterday I knit. A lot. I have finished the left sleeve on my sweater and I’m in the early rounds of the body. (You work it cuff to center, then cuff to center.) Great progress, but hopefully it won’t hurt the test grade! Back to the books now…